The Polar Express

After hearing about this fun opportunity last Christmas from some friends, Brian and I have since been planning our own trip to take Ellie on the Polar Express. It's operated out of the town of Williams by the Grand Canyon Railway, which as its name suggests takes passengers up to the Grand Canyon. The Polar Express has an option to buy just the train tickets or the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel offers package deals for a night's stay, meals and tickets for the train ride, which we opted for. Williams got DUMPED with snow the weekend before our trip (when we originally planned to go before it sold out) but it made for a beautiful snowy landscape while we were there without the hassle of driving in it! 

One of Ellie's birthday gifts from us was a copy of "The Polar Express" which we read multiple times in preparation for our special weekend. Ellie refers to the book as "spress." :) On an unfortunate side note, I ended up catching a lousy pre-Christmas cold a few days before we left that also Brian caught while in Williams which really diminished our enjoyment of the whole experience, but we rallied for Ellie's sake who I think had a lot of fun!

The parking and check-in process was a bit of a nightmare but once we got into our room, we quickly changed into our jammies and immediately headed over to the train station to catch the Polar Express! We didn't have any time to get a picture with Santa (which I thought was strange to see him before getting on the train, for anyone familiar with the book) but we did get a picture in front of the large display engine!

We stood by our train car for a few minutes before we were greeted by our "chefs" who invited us to board our car and find our seats.

We felt the train slowly move forward signaling that we were on our way. The sun was setting as we pulled out of the station and we got to see the Christmas lights in downtown Williams.

As we rolled away from Williams and into the woods, we saw a family of deer grazing outside of the train before it got too dark! Our chefs served us hot chocolate and cookies, all of which were quickly devoured.

After enjoying our cookies and hot chocolate and going through a "time warp tunnel" which allowed us to reach the "North Pole" in record time, we listened to a narration of the book while our chefs showed us the pictures. As the train slowed down, we could see lights in the distance from our side of the train. We pulled up to the North Pole and saw Santa standing on his sleigh waving to us! We pulled past the North Pole then backed up again to take another look, only to see that Santa was no longer on the sleigh -- he was in the train! While Santa made his way through the cars ahead of ours, we spent the time waiting by singing Christmas carols.

Then Santa showed up in our train car!

Santa handed out sleigh bells to each of the children as he walked through the car. When he got to our seats, he handed Ellie a bell and asked her to be good so he could visit on Christmas Eve.

I'm very amused that, before giving Ellie her bell, Santa handed one to me. I joked to Brian that it must have been Santa's acknowledgement (or confusion) of my exuberant and youthful attitude (ha!). I'm pretty sure it was confusion, especially considering I was the only adult in our car to get a bell. 

Anyhow, Ellie loved her sleigh bell and shook it for what seemed like the entire journey back to the station -- a truly magical evening!