Merry Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas

from our family to yours!

Wishing you all peace and joy this holiday season.

An Overnight Adventure: Palestine and the Polar Express

Last weekend, we loaded up the car and headed north to Palestine to ride the Polar Express, while listening to From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler on audio book. With temps around 80 degrees, it was lovely out but decidedly not polar!

Our first stop was the Diboll History Center and their train. It's one of our favorite stops in East Texas.

Next up, we visited Caddo Mounds State Historic Site and arrived just in time for a special presentation by the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center. We learned all about owls! It was a fantastic event.

After arriving in Palestine and checking in to the hotel, we changed into our Christmas pajamas and headed to the Palestine station for the 5pm ride on the Polar Express. We missed last year's ride due to severe weather, so this was our fourth ride on the train.

This year, we upgraded to Diamond class seats, which meant we were in the upper level and had extra special mugs and a bit more time with Santa.

The kids were so excited! The ride is as magical as it was the first time we went back in 2012.

The North Pole!

Santa came aboard and passed out sleigh bells to all the children.

And we even got a photo with the man in red!

We were all pretty tired after the trip, so we snuggled into our hotel beds as an arctic front blew in and read books before falling asleep.

The next day, it was only in the 20s when we woke up, so we ate our breakfast, bundled up and packed up the car.    

We had planned to go hiking, but it was so cold that we thought better of it... until we looked at the map and realized we were passing right by Fort Boggy State Park. With our parks pass giving us free admission, we decided to take a quick break and stretch our legs.  

The park is beautiful and we had it completely to ourselves! 

We made it a quarter of the way around the lake before encountering a muddy trail that sent us back the way we came.  

It was a chilly 28°.

As always, the Polar Express is a wonderful, magical Christmas experience and we had so much exploring some new parts of East Texas. 

'Tis the Season

We are quickly speeding toward Christmas again this year and doing our best to get in the holiday spirit! There is still much left on our bucket list (including baking Christmas cookies) but here's a peek at some of our Christmas outings of 2016.

We picked out our tree on the weekend after Thanksgiving, as is our tradition. The boys found a tree they agreed on immediately and we were done,

except for getting it off the car and setting it up. 9-foot trees are heavy!

Trimming the tree with handmade ornaments

The boys and I attended West U's annual tree lighting ceremony on a chilly evening. We were thankful for steaming cups of cocoa.

The ice sculptures were new this year.

Fake snow and red balloons 

We also attended the annual V&E gingerbread party on a cold, rainy day. V&E throws an amazing party with breakfast buffet, entertainment and gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate. 

The boys' classes celebrated with winter parties at school too.

With only four days until Christmas, there's much more holiday fun to be had!