Candlelight Christmas

Friday night, we took the opportunity to go up to the This Is The Place using our gift (Family Passes) from Chris and Stephanie.  They sure did a good job giving us the Pioneer Christmas experience.  It was FREEZING cold outside, so we had to get all bundled up!  And for the first time in a while our kids all had good, warm, matching even! clothes to stay at a relatively comfortable temperature!  It also helped that we could go into the little buildings along the way.  We heard the story of how hanging stockings on the mantle came to be, we saw an elf village, looked at the lights, made a poinsettia craft, a snowflake craft, saw how they made popcorn over an open fire, listened to the beautiful music of the carolers, sat on Father Christmas's lap, AND (the most important part) rode on the "train"!!!  It was a very fun-filled evening!

The kids got to write their names on the Naughty or Nice lists.  

Erika LOVED the train!!  She kept announcing that she was riding backwards and that she was "totally freaking out about it!"  So funny.

I'm pretty sure we could have JUST ridden on the train and they would have been completely satisfied with that :)  Funny kids.  I love how easy they are to please!

Our kids know that the Santas we see in town before Christmas are not the REAL Santa.  So when they have the opportunity to sit on his lap, they are a little weirded out.  Bradley for example "didn't know" what he wanted for Christmas and was not going to decide right there.  Father Christmas talked to him for a very long time.  I'm sure everyone in the huge line was annoyed :).

Erika ran up to him like she knew the guy!  So cute!  She didn't really talk though.  She may have mentioned that she wanted a baby bed, not sure though.

Lukey seemed shy as well.  I don't know what he told him he wanted.  But it's pretty cool that we got him to sit on his lap at all.

Kelly was shy too :).  

Cherry too.

 

Noah would not sit on his lap.  This was as close as he would get.  He told Santa he wanted "Optimus Prime and Bumblebee".  I'm surprised he said anything at all :).

This Father Christmas looked so good!  Reminded me of the Father Christmas my Grandma Mottishaw painted MANY years ago.  She always had it on her mantle at Christmastime.  Looked just like him......

It was a lot of fun, something I'd love to do again next year.