At our family get together over Labor Day, we all decided that it would be so much fun to take the kids on the Polar Express in Bryson City, NC. And since we traditionally celebrate with Dad in November, whether it be for his birthday or Thanksgiving, it made a lot of sense to combine all the holidays of the upcoming month with a weekend away.
Papaw Bud was able to join us for the weekend, and it was the funniest thing-- Harper would. not. leave. his. side. She's only really ever been around him one other time (just a few months ago at Aunt Betsy's), but she was just in love with him. I'm glad she got to bond with him.
Our families really have everything we could ever ask for. Our Christmas last year consisted of each making Pinterest boards and buying from each accordingly. We may have gotten what we wanted, but it was pretty boring. And Leah got three pairs of the same running shoes. Haha! So, we decided to forego gifts with the adults and do a fun (but somewhat expensive) weekend away together. Enter our Christmas/Thanksgiving/Dad's birthday celebration in the Smoky Mountains.
As soon as we decided on that plan, I got online to buy the Polar Express tickets since they sell out so early! Here it was September and all the tickets for the First Class cars were booked for the Friday night and Saturday of our desired weekend in November. Craziness! We decided maybe we aren't first class people anyway when our kids are in tow, so we picked the crown class and booked our tickets.
Dad took on the job of finding us a place to stay, and he did a great job (even if we may have wondered if we were going to die when we were plowing up a giant mountain in the pitch black on the Friday night we arrived. Eek!) It had plenty of room and lots of mountain charm.
On Saturday morning, Leah whipped up her famous "heart attack breakfast casserole" and the kids got to have Christmas morning with Nana and Papaw. How sweet were they to literally pack an artificial Christmas tree so that it would feel like Christmas on this weekend before Thanksgiving?
They loved their gifts! And their parents loved them all except for the pop shotguns. Haha. We will be hearing those for the rest of the weekend and beyond. After gifts, we all packed up and went over the Nantahala river for lunch and some exploring.
After lunch, we went back to the cabin for some late naps to gear up for our big night on the Polar Express. But, before we could leave for the train, Papaw took the grandkids on a hunt with their new "shotguns." Nik went out and hid a bobcat, moose, and bear and then they went "hunting" for them. So cute and thoughtful. Since it was dusk, it was even enough to scare never-afraid Harper. Willa had to offer to help Harper since she had already "shot" her bobcat and new that it was just pretend.
As you would guess, the Polar Express was magical. Before we boarded the train, the kids got pictures with Santa. It was so magical they even smiled on the first try.
The train tries to follow the movie storyline pretty closely. The chefs go through the cabin singing "Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot Chocolate!" and read the Polar Express story. We arrived at the North Pole and saw Santa sitting among the lights waving. We kept going a little past it to where "he stores the toys," and then Marshmallow (one of our cabin chefs) told us that if we didn't see Santa when we went back through, it must mean he was ON THE TRAIN.
The children didn't need much coaxing to go to bed... we were all worn out from a super fun day. The next morning, we had to pack up our things to get ready to leave. Waaahhh. It was just too short of a weekend. But, we decided to drive into Asheville to go to the Sierra Nevada brewery. That place is gorgeous. And we had a delicious lunch of tapas... with applebutter pizza, candied beets, and beer butter pretzels. Delish. It was a great way to send off a really fun weekend-- a great early Christmas gift to each other.
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