Kansas City Christmas Express

We took a long weekend and went to Kansas City to take in some Christmas sights with Chad's parents! It was kinda a train themed weekend as that is one of Caleb's favorite things! We visited Crayola Village, the Gingerbread Village display with trains that run through it, a train store with model trains set up, and ate at Fritz's Railroad Restaurant. They deliver your burgers via a train on a track around the top of the restaurant and there is a mechanism to drop and lower the basket of burgers down to your table. We also went to Longview Lake for a drive-through Christmas light display and drove through the Plaza. We also stopped at the Bass Pro Shop and walked through the store, it was like a zoo to Caleb, he especially loved the big fish tank and looking down over the store from the upper floor. We took a long hike on Saturday morning and enjoyed some of the nice and warmer weather we got this last weekend, and then we visited a church that sets up 200+ Nativities, many of which are from countries all over the world. It was very neat and amazing to see such a variety of ways the Manger scene was depicted and various ways they were made, crafted. We had a great time and enjoyed having some time to relax and enjoy some Christmas in the city!

Here come the burgers!

Last night our church had the Choir Christmas program and then an all church Christmas party. Caleb loves going to church and gets so excited when we turn the corner and he sees the church, he loves seeing his friends. We had a "special visitor" at the end of the party for the kids, and of course I didn't take my camera last night, but Caleb made it onto Santa's lap without screaming, He did insist on holding Daddy's hand. When Santa called his name at the beginning he stood up then got freightened and layed down and hid his head, but then he saw all the other kids getting Candy Canes when they went up to Santa's lap. By golly, he figured out that he just had to sit for a moment and he got his "Candy" and that is what he was going to do, of course we had to wait until all of the other kids were done since he had missed his first chance. It wasn't a real photo opportunity as he looked like he was going to be shot if he moved or something while sitting there. I still don't think he particularly takes a liking to the big guy!

One full week left to finish our Christmas gifts and prepare for family! It is so much fun with Caleb this year because he understands what is going on so much more, but I feel like it is so much more important now to continue to create and really follow through with our Christmas Traditions and teaching him the "real story of Christmas"! I must say I am way behind on Christmas gifts and crafting this year and I don't think I will be getting to much of it in time! But we're having fun and enjoying the Season which is pretty priceless right now!