On Friday night, we met Andrew's "BFF", Avi, and his parents over at a train park right by our house. The "park" is a meeting place for a local club of train enthusiasts. This was their annual Christmas toy drive & night run weekend. For just the simple "cost" of a toy donation, we enjoyed a lovely evening of trains galore complete with a Christmas feel. Our first stop was the train ride. There were a surprising amount of people there, but we only had to wait about 15 minutes, all the while being serenaded with Christmas tunes from a small band. The boys were quite eager for their turn to ride and stood with faces pressed to the fence, waiting for their chance to board the train.
The train ride itself was surprisingly long--we learned that they own 150 desert acres & have 14 miles of track. Andrew was quite excited and definitely enjoyed seeing all the Christmas lights & decorations along the way. Contrary to what some of you midwesterners might think :), it actually was quite chilly--so much so, that Brian & Marc regretted not wearing any gloves.
The train ride was a big hit, & numerous, emphatic, "Choo-choo"s were heard by Andrew and Avi. After our ride, we were thrilled to go inside for a minute & look at all the model trains. Both Andrew & Avi's eyes just lit up--they were so excited. And, each got a turn (with Daddy, of course) to actually run one of the trains.
As if all of those giant tables inside weren't enough, there were more model trains outside. The boys loved "chasing" the train and yelling "choo-choo" again.
At one point they stopped, so that Andrew could share all his knowledge of model trains with Avi! :)
The night was made complete by warm cups of hot chocolate and a visit from Santa. Andrew definitely understands much more about Santa this year and thought it was pretty fun he was there. But, as soon as we would get close, Andrew wanted NO part of it. Ironically enough, his Jewish friend Avi had no problem running right up to Santa. However, Andrew was still unsure, even with Daddy holding him. We tried to get him to sit by Santa with Daddy, but that was a no go as well. So, we settled for a high five and then getting a candy cane from good 'ole St. Nick.
The night was great & the boys had a blast! We are so excited to give Andrew his train table for Christmas, we can hardly wait! After seeing his reaction of Friday night, there is no doubt he will L-O-V-E his table.
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