the holiday express

the saturday following thanksgiving my mother purchased tickets for the whole family to ride the heber creeper holiday express.  

the whole get together is our christmas present this year.

we met up at the train depot around 2.

that train is over 100 years old and it really sticks to its name “creeper”.

there’s no fast about that train ride.

that landscape gave quite the view.

we sang christmas carols

mary led a christmas carol train of kids.... and looked flabbergasted. 

sat under some christmas lights and garland.

sipped a fine cup of hot cocoa.

munched a cookie from mrs. clause.

got a souvenir wooden coin.

got our vintage tickets punched.

did a drive by of the “north pole”.

then santa appeared in the north pole wilderness and joined our train ride.

mares acted like we may have a repeat of last years santa meeting….

she ran to my arms and held tight.

when mr. claus gave her a jingle bell and didn’t try to take her from me she decided she rather fancied the bearded man.

her new favorite word became “santa”.

her teeny paws had a death grip on her ticket with santa on it and that jingle bell.

it was the most adorable thing ever.

thus ensued a love for santa- forged from the ashes of pure terror and item bribery.

our holiday cheer meter was off the charts as we crept along in that locomotive.

i’ve developed a love of locomotion travel.

combining such travel with christmas cheer is one of the most brilliant combinations.  

maybe my favorite moment of the whole trip was a small ordeal that my sister nancy was furious over (and rightly so)

my mother had handed out gum to everyone. 

mary ate carlie's discarded gum when she wasn't looking- which was spectacular. 

but the finest gum moment came when 2 cousins were sitting by each other- one named wilkes a hearty young man, and another named violett with beautiful long locks of luscious hair;

the strapping young man thought a thought and instantly acted on it. 

gum in long hair seemed like a fine addition. 

so he did it; he placed his chewed gum in his cousins hair. 

luckily he only lightly placed it there so removal was easy; but let's be honest that's one classic series of events. 

he got in serious trouble- good parenting.

his crappy aunt (myself) chuckled a wee bit. 

kids are the greatest in about a million ways. 

we rode that train like champions-

then we satisfied our post championship hunger with some café rio.

a finale worthy of the past day’s events.

then we parted ways until our next ellett scheming.

we have a lot of holidaying that needs doing.

hope everything is cheery for all of you!

happiest of holidays!