Pre-Christmas Activities

We have been very busy getting ready for Christmas!  Christian is really into it and is so excited.  He gives a shout out everytime he sees Christmas lights and tries to count how many Santa's he sees on our drives. He gives a louder yell when the "jumbo Santas" are spotted, you know those insanely large blow up Santas, that are 16 ft tall.  We did the south city "Candycane Lane" drive through. It's a two block long street, where almost every house is fully decorated with lights and lights also strung across the street. It is so magical and Christian just looked with wide eyes and that smile of awe on his face.  I almost hit a parked car from looking at the lights and quickly back to catch his reactions....oops :)

We drove downtown St. Louis to walk among the lights and displays in City Garden.  Then we headed over to Macy's to see the window displays, only to find out they only did one corner window Christmas display.  Very disappointing.  But the one display they did do was a four tiered mountain side with electric trains going across bridges, through tunnels and by detailed buildings.  It was wonderful, we looked at every angle for a long time and Christian didn't want to leave. He's really getting into trains lately.

Christian's school had a field trip this past Friday morning and I chaperoned, and am so glad I did!  There's a retired man that has collected trains since he was 10 yrs old and puts up an exhibit in his basement.  He lets people come look at it, which is so generous.  His setup takes up two full walls of the basement, each about 18 ft long and extends out into the room about 8 ft.  BIG!  He has around 30 trains of various sizes and styles, numerous buildings, people, animals, accessories, etc.  It takes him 4 1/2 months to set it up, he tears it down every year and lays it out differently each time. We were there for about an hour and I know I didn't see everything because it had so much detail. The kids were enthralled as well as the adults because the adults realize how much time and money went into the setup.  It motivated me to make a small scenery setup for the small train set "Santa" is bringing Christian for Christmas.

So now I have six days until Christmas and a train set scenery to build.  Why do I get these creative bursts at the last minute:)  I am having fun working on it and just have to keep him out of the basement and then figure out how to pack it in the car to drive to my family without him seeing it. I've commissioned Grandpa to build the tunnel while I try to figure out how to make lightweight mountains that are portable.  Uummmm......

Christian keeps telling me "I'm a good boy."  I keep telling him that he has to be a good boy for Santa to bring him toys and the Snickerdoodle (the Elf) is also watching to report to Santa.  I'm getting such a kick out of this whole thing!  Whenver he's not behaving, I just have to point to Snickerdoodle, raise my eyebrow and he immediately says, "I'm sorry Mommy," then looks at the elf and says the same thing.  Whenver he helps me and I tell him thank you for the help, he runs over to Snickerdoodle and tells him, "I'm helped Mommy, I'm a good boy."  It is so precious to see the excitement on his face, the innocence of believing and dreaming. Even typing this, I see his face and feel his excitement and it draws a smile to my face.  I am truly reliving parts of my childhood through him and learning to slow down and cherish the simple things again.
Now off to experiment with fake mountains.....
~Amy