All Aboard!!!

Well, we rode the Polar Express!! Atley LOVED it! I think all of the kids had a really good time. Ari was scared, at first. My mom had to literally remove her from the car. She was afraid we were going to get hurt going across ice, like in the movie. She remained a little reserved the whole trip, but I think she enjoyed herself.

We were in car #9, which was the last car, farthest away from the station! We were, however, at the head of the train, and the first ones to the North Pole! The engineer even let Atley hold his lamp for the picture! Here are the kids outside the train:

Here we are, safely boarded, with our tickets!

We listened to an elf read the story of "The Polar Express." Then, we were served our hot chocolate and a cookie. We listened to some of the soundtrack from the movie, and we finally arrived to the North Pole! The kids were super excited. We saw Frosty, Rudolph, Mr. Grinch (Ari's favorite), and of course Santa and Mrs. Claus. Then, we had another little panic attack from poor Ari. See, they shut the interior lights off in the train when we got to the North Pole so we could see all the lights and everything better. Well, as I said, we were the first car, so after we got through, we plunged into near darkness in the woods. Then, the train came to a complete stop. Of course, we were just getting ready to head back home, but Ari thought something happened and started crying that we were stuck in the woods. I told them we were just waiting for Santa to get on. Atley also said, "It's okay Ari, we're just going to go back home the other way." So, we started to head back through the North Pole, and saw Santa standing outside, and they were so upset that no one would get the first gift of Christmas. Well, lucky for us, we stopped right at the edge, and Santa jumped on, and we were the first car to see him! All of the children got to tell Santa what they wanted, and he signed their tickets. (Some people had him sign their books, but of course since we don't have it or the DVD (yet) and didn't even think of that if we had, he signed our tickets!) Here is my favorite picture of the whole trip. Ari getting to talk to Santa:

After we left the North Pole, we sang Christmas Carols. The trip home, as always, seemed much quicker than the trip there. (Isn't that odd how that always works?) The kids had a great time. In the gift shop before we boarded, we got Charlie a little engineer bear since he stayed home with daddy. Hopefully next year, we can all go. Atley was completely thrilled, and the girls had fun. Heck, I even had a great time! I'd never been on a train before, either. What better first train ride, than a magic train ride, right?

One more day!

We go on the Polar Express in 1 more day! I'm so excited. Even Melodie getting 2 tardies this week has not driven me crazy!! (My god, will they please give that kid a detention so I can maybe, finally break her of this habit!?!?) I'm going to get everything ready tonight. Dan is going to stay home with Charlie, and I'm going to take the big kids.

Tomorrow are the girls' Christmas parties at school. I've been in to school every day this week. I almost welcome the 2 week break of not having to get up at 6:30....but, that will be 2 weeks of extra children at home to drive me nuts while I'm trying to work! Hopefully, they will be entranced enough with their new presents that they'll be slightly subdued. They'll also have a couple new movies to watch.

I got one of Atley's wristies done last night. I didn't do it quite like the pattern said. I had to make it bigger to fit his hand, and the pattern was making it really pouffy around the hand part. I measured his hand today. I may end up frogging the one I did do and winging my own pattern now that I have his exact measurements.

We Got 'Em!!!

My mom won! She won the tickets for the polar express! I am SO excited. I had a REALLY crappy morning this morning (let's just say Melodie wouldn't get ready again, and her hair was still damp and when I brushed it at school, it made snowflakes!), and she called and gave me the news. I am on cloud 9 now. I want to tell Atley SO bad. I hope I can hold out until Friday!! We go at 7:30 Friday night. My mom gave me the tickets tonight at Ari's Christmas program. (She did so good. She was so cute in her little green dress. I'd post a pic, but we were so far away from the stage, she was just a speck.) I can't wait!! Melodie was so bummed because Ari brought home a letter that said Friday will be Polar Express Day in kindergarten, and to wear their pajamas because they'll be going on the Polar Express. (which I know they're not physically going anywhere because we didn't get a permission slip) But poor Melodie is convinced Ari's taking a trip to the North Pole from school on Friday.

Tomorrow, Melodie has her Thomas Edison Day invention showing. We'll be going to school to see all of the kids inventions.

I finished 2 more projects. I did the Ghost Finger Puppet:

I also finished Charlie's Baby Triceratops. I think he turned out really cute! Here he is:

I also got started on Atley's Batman Wristies. (He asked for a pair of fingerless gloves since he saw me making pair upon pair.)

Keep Your Finger Crossed!

If anyone would want to give us any sort of luck you can, I'd sure appreciate it! Atley dearly loves trains (if I haven't said that enough already.) He is obsessed with the Polar Express. (Which I finally just bought for him for Christmas...yay!!) He is so excited when he sees the preview on "Prisoner of Azkaban", and then just devastated when he realizes it's really POA. (He is anti-Harry Potter...enough is enough for him, though he did just tell me the other day he likes the Hogwarts Express, again. For his birthday, before Dan could even ask him at the train store, he saw it and went ballistic "That's not mine, it's Ari's, I don't want that. I don't like that. I'm not getting that. That's Ari's not mine." Poor kid!!) Anyway, the local train line here has a Polar Express train in the winter. It would have cost us $150 for all of us to go. So, we resigned ourselves to not going. Well, my mom called me this morning, and her work purchased 30 sets of 4 tickets! They're giving them away to employees. (To put it into perspective, she works for a pretty big hospital, and they have over 5000 employees.) She put in for the drawing. I want more than anything else I could hope for to give this to Atley (and the girls...but he'll truly enjoy it the most.) My mom always wins stuff from work and radio stations. Just in the past couple months, she's won 2 gift cards and a CD! Hopefully, her luck will hold out. She's also going to see if there is a list of people who won't need all 4 tickets that would be willing to give one up for Dan. Any luck anyone can send our way would be appreciated! It would surely make not only Atley's Christmas, but it would probably be his best memory to date, and who knows, possibly of his childhood. He lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps trains. This would be so big for him.

Progress Made

So, I started a train sweater for Altey months ago. I was so excited. Then, I got to the neck shaping....and bombed! I had no clue what the pattern meant. I asked KnittedSister, who set me on the right "track" (haha, I made a train-funny) and I stopped. I haven't worked on it in forever. I just completley lacked motivation, though I really want to see the look on Atley's face when he opens this! I must say, I don't think I'll ever make a raglan sweater again. Being a left handed knitter, it's just too confusing for me, at least for now. Maybe if I can find a lefty raglan sweater, I'll give it a go, because I do really like the cables. I may even make him the matching hat, but that's an if-I-have time kind of thing right now. Last night, I made great progress, though! I finished that neck shaping, finished the sleeve I had started while I was waiting for instruction on the neck shaping, and got the sleeve attached and seam sewn on one side. I'm hoping to knock out a good chunk of sleeve tonight, and will hopefully have it done in the next couple days. All other projects are on hold right now, until I get this sweater done!

Here is an old picture of the train pattern. I didn't get a picture with the sleeve on last night.