Take a Ride on the Polar Express

Every year my children's school holds a Polar Express fund raiser. They rent a train for most of the day and have 4 rides. On these rides passengers are treated to hot coco, a cookie and visits from some special guests. They take about a 30 minute train ride that we tell them goes to the North Pole just like the real Polar Express. Then its another 30 minutes back. The train is set up just like the book The Polar Express and the movie. There's a conductor and servers and they have a reader who reads the Polar Express dressed in their pj's. In fact we encourage all the passengers to wear their pj's. Most of the children do as well as a few adults. everyone really tries to get into the spirit.

The kids are treated with visits from Santa who gives out the first gift of Christmas. Mrs. Claus, Frosty and Rudolph and many elves make an appearance as well. Each child leaves with their very own silver bell.

Today was the day that this took place. My oldest daughter wanted to be one of the elves this year so I volunteered to be a server on her train rides. We got the early shift which meant we had to be there from about 11:00am until 2:30pm. It was crazy. There were so many people and little kids. The children were so excited about everything and people really seemed to have a great time. They just loved when we arrived at the North Pole and all the visitors started coming through the train. They even had letters ready to give to Santa's elves. There weren't any complaints. Though there were some sleeping children as they headed out. My daughter made an adorable elf and she had a great time with all her friends.

I'm completely exhausted. I really just want to go to sleep, but I need to clean my house as we have company coming tomorrow. The holiday season can be so busy.