Santa train and decorating the Christmas tree

 I have been wanting to take the kids for a few years now to see Santa arrive on a train at Salem Riverfront Park, and finally got to it this year.  It was the day after Thanksgiving, and he arrived at about noon.  There were so many people though that we didn't bother staying to try and see him.  We'll go back another day to the carousel and see him when it's less busy.


There was a cute little girl with red hair dressed up in an apron, wearing antlers, and a red nose that was handing out free hot chocolate while we waited.

It was yummy!

Some excited, smiling eyes, while waiting for Santa.

Finally!  He arrived on schedule.  The boys loved the train part too of course.  Mrs. clause came too.

Aaron was plugging his ears because the train was so loud.  We stayed behind to watch the train pull away.  It's always pretty spectacular to be up close to a train with all the sights and sounds. 

Then we walked by the river along the park on the way back to the car.  April was really bummed that we didn't get to ride the carousel (it would have been too busy to wait with all the people). 


The next day (Saturday) was Christmas tree time!

I didn't get any pictures of us getting the tree, I forgot the camera!  So, no pictures of that part, but I have lots of pictures from decorating it on Sunday.

So, remember that little girl we saw at the park?  Well, April thought it was cute so she did it too for decorating time.

I've had this candle decoration in the box for several years now.  It's never actually come out until this year.  Aaron wanted to put it together and see it work.  The heat from the candles make the fan spin which spins the angels, which makes a little dinging sound as it goes around and around.  Aaron loves this little decoration.  The candles are wavy because they were melted in storage, but they still worked!

Tree decorating was so fun this year!  All the kids were just so happy, and excited.  They loved seeing all the fun decorations come out.

Oh, and now all the kids wanted to dress as rudolph for decorating time. 

Alexander was even making all kinds of squeals of delight.  He loved playing with these little ball ornaments.

I LOVED that I was finally smart last year and packed all the decorations right.  I put all the kids' personal ornaments in their own labeled boxes so that they could just take their OWN ornaments out and there was no worry or confusion as to who was getting what.  It made things go much smoother, and everybody was happy going through their own box and putting their decorations on the tree.

After all the mess was put away it felt a little more festive in our front room.


Merry Christmas!