This clearly had to be the most memorable activity of the 2012 holiday season. I of course found the idea on Pinterest and thought it would be great to add a little excitement to the usual go see the Christmas lights activity. We got our friends the Pantons to go along with the idea, which made it all the more fun for everyone. I was secretly loving the fact that we have an 8 passenger minivan that could accommodate our two families for this activity.
1. Print off these awesome train tickets
2. Make a treat bag to be eaten in the car while driving around to look at lights. So happy for the Lake Sawyer Grocery store that is close by and that has the 10 cent candy bin. Oh yeah and they were nice enough to let me have 8 brown paper bags (the perfect size.)
3. Hide printed tickets under the bed sheets of both Kelsey and Spencer’s bed
4. Have a movie night watching the Polar Express together as a family. (However, when you have a hubby in the bishopric, sometimes our planned whole family activities end up being me and the kids.) Oh well, we made it work and he made it back for the end of the movie.
5. Put the kids to bed just like normal. At Christmas time, we have a few added activities to that bedtime routine. This includes our tradition of choosing a wrapped up Christmas book to read together as a family each night. The kids take turns choosing a book each night to open and tonight, it happened to be Spencer’s turn.
As you can see, it isn’t always roses putting two kids to bed and here we have Spencer and Kelsey fighting over who is going to read the book. Kelsey wants to read it, but Spencer wanted daddy to read it.
As you can see, Kelsey won!
We brushed the kid’s teeth and took them to their rooms to tuck them in, but when they opened their covers, there was a magic ticket! O.K., this was so fun, wish I had pictures and video of the moment they found their tickets. They weren’t sure what it was for, but oh how excited they were when they found out they weren’t going to bed, but rather they got to stay up late and go for a ride on the minivan express! They raced down the stairs, got their jackets and shoes on and out the front door we went to our minivan parked right in front of the house (usually it is in the garage.)
5. It was ticket punching time and Brian was so agreeable to putting on his suit jacket (without complaining) and also wore a train conductors hat (actually it was a pilots hat that we borrowed from our neighbor.) Brian also quickly grabbed a flashlight so he could totally play the part. He used the Tom Hanks voice and asked for “Tickets Please.” The kids were so so so excited, all smiles, and Spencer thought the whole thing was absolutely real!
6. When the kids got in the car, I had the Polar Express music blasting that I had hurriedly downloaded off of itunes a few hours earlier and it made it all the more real, especially for Spencer.
7. The kids had no idea where we were going or what we were going to do, but Spencer thought we were for sure going to the North Pole. However, they got even more excited when we told them we were going to go and pick up passengers (the Pantons.) They were so excited when we pulled up to their house and learned that they got to take some really good friends along. The Panton family had also gone through the same routine as us, watching the movie, getting ready for bed and all. They were pretty excited to see Brian on their front porch with his ticket punch, hat, and jacket. I hadn’t told Becky about Brian’s attire and I think it caught her by surprise? We were off to a great start to our evening.
8. We skipped the CD forward to the song, “Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot Chocolate” as we appropriately went to the coffee house to pick up hot chocolate to sip while we ate treats and looked at lights. We had planned to go through the drive-thru, but because we are not coffee drinkers and don’t frequent this spot, we had no idea that at this hour of night that the drive-thru was closed. Thank goodness you could still walk in and order. So, our awesome guys went in and got hot cocoa for everyone. They looked so sharp coming out with our orders.
We had a great night looking at Christmas lights, but couldn’t figure out why Spencer was so antsy to keep moving. We figured it out… he still thought we were on our way to the North Pole and I cannot tell you the disappointment he felt when we went home and had to break the news to him that it was all pretend. Oh well, it was so worth it and so fun! We gave each of the kids a Christmas bell with a note about the bell that only rings for those who truly believe. Such a fun way to end the evening.
When we got home, everyone wanted to try on the hat, so Brian took some photos of everyone with the hat (even me.) Spencer wins the prize for looking the cutest, but what a fun evening! We will most definitely do this again next year and the next, a new Ballard family Christmas tradition!
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