4th Annual Polar Express

My sister and brother in law hosted their 4th annual Polar Express party a few weekends before Christmas.  I am soo impressed with how much more elaborate they get every single year!  No detail goes unnoticed and they work so hard to make this a magical night for all of us!

Posing in our beautiful Christmas outfits in front of the ticket booth set

 

Starting the night with some cookie decorating!  The set up in the basement was gorgeous and every kiddo had their own personally embroidered apron to wear :)

 

 

 

Marae and Ashlyn LOVE their baby Hads!

 

 

 

Time to make some ornaments!

 

 

Almost time to go upstairs to board the Polar Express!

 

The Conductor (aka Papa) punching their tickets

 

 

 

 

Look at this thing!  It had a light and dry ice to make smoke too!

 

 

Papa reading the book to all the kiddos

 

 

Uncle Johnny telling a really cute story and handing out prizes

 

 

Hot chocolate and popcorn time

 

 

Ending the night with the movie!

 

 

And opening a couple presents from their cousins since we wouldn't be with them on Christmas...

 

 

Had to document my fruit I brought to the party - thank you Pinterest!

 

 

What kind of annual traditions will your kids remember about Christmas when they are older?

Enjoying (Holiday Edition)....

... 5am weekend mornings by the tree with my baby girl.  I would rather sleep but the wee hours are a lot more tolerable with a beautiful tree to sip coffee next to :)

.... the chance to have an adult only girls tea at the gorgeous Brown Palace hotel!  This may have to become a new family tradition.

 

.... our first Christmas with our Elf, Bell!  It's a lot of work but fun to see the excitement on the boys faces when they find him every morning!  I am not the Mom who does crazy elaborate things but we do some of the easier fun things with Bell :)

.... watching Brady perform in his preschool Christmas performance!  He was so awesome singing Jingle Bell Rock - all that practice paid off :)  He was the loudest one yelling "Rock the Night Away!"  So proud of him!  I was totally the Mom video recording and mouthing the words the whole time - haha! His teachers made them all shirts that said "Rockin' Antelopes" - so cute!

 

Santa was there...

And Grandma & Papa H...

 

.... making the "Nice" list this year - phew!

 

 

.... making Christmas cookies while we watched our nephews last week!

 

Santa Train

Our 2nd annual Santa train ride in Georgetown was just as amazing as last year!

The Georgetown Loop Railroad offers a Christmas train ride with Santa during the holidays and you get to enjoy cookies and hot chocolate and go on an amazing train ride through the mountains!  We have done it for 2 years as a Christmas activity/celebrating Papa's birthday.  The train takes about an hour roundtrip and the kids get to visit with Santa, he gives them a bell and takes lots of pictures.  Toward the end of the train ride it was getting dark and there were Christmas lights on outside the train that you could see - so magical :)

 

Santa and Mrs. Clause with all the cousins!  We pretty much got our own car again (besides a table of 4 at the end) because our family is so large!

Grandma & Papa with all the kids

 

Brady getting a bell from Santa and Brady reminding him that he wants gummy bears for Christmas - lol :)

 

 

Love this pic of my boys enjoying the gorgeous view!

 

 

The whole group!

 

All bundled up and prepared for the cold weather :)

This was a really neat milestone because our train ride last year was when we announced to the family that I was pregnant with Hadley and now this year she is here, healthy and enjoying the Christmas season with us!  Amazing what a difference a year makes!

Love these memories we are creating for the kids!

After the train ride we headed into town and went to a great restaurant.  It is so perfect for us because it has a cave in the basement and the restaurant lets us take over the whole thing.  There is a pool table, tvs for football and tons of room so the kids can just run around and play before and after eating.  It's the only way to go out to dinner with 17 people (including 9 kids) and stay sane - haha!

Happy Birthday Papa!!