The Polar Express

I have two favorite Christmas books. One is a direct quotation of the Christmas story from The Gospel of Luke (King James Version) illustrated with simply stunning artwork by James Bernardin. The other is Chris Van Allsburg's The Polar Express. I read them both as frequently as possible duringing the Christmas season, while trying not to overexpose my kids to them for fear that the novelty will wear off. We have dozens and dozens of Christmas books, but these two are our (my) favorites.

Living out the first book would require a very expensive and rather dangerous trip to the Holy Land. We had the opportunity to jump right into the second, though! Thanks to some very generous family members, we made our way through the snow to the station and boarded The Polar Express on December 20th. We were served hot chocolate and candies, elves met us at the North Pole and escorted us to an indoor meeting area where a grown-up boy read the story and then Santa even made time to visit with us quickly! He greeted all the children and even remembered some of the grown-ups. Grandma Way avoided eye contact due to a certain coal incident back in the 1930's. As we left, we each received a beautiful silver bell...the first gift of Christmas!

Here are some pictures from our exciting and magical night...