ALL ABOARD

Next stop Bryson City, North Carolina. We leave Friday afternoon for the long anticipated Polar Express trip. We've been talking about it since the spring and we actually called and made reservations over Labor Day. I about died when I called to inquire and the "elf" that answered the phone asked what day I was looking into because they were almost SOLD OUT!! I got my fanny in gear and after making a few phone calls we had our 1st class train tickets reserved.
Our train pulls out at 5pm on Saturday night. We decided after much discussion that we needed to go on Friday so that we would have a hotel room reserved for nap time on Saturday! They will read the story over a loud speaker and if anyone has ever seen the movie they do a "Hot Chocolate" song and dance. That's when they'll bring out our hot chocolate (in our own take home mug)! The whole train ride is an hour and 15 minutes and that does include the stop to the "North Pole". The train will stop there and let Santa on and he'll give each child a silver bell. The cutest part is that the kids are encouraged to wear their pajamas. Allyson ordered him a pair of pj's like the kid wears in the movie but Brax's has his name on them. I know he'll be darling. Dad actually asked me while we were out a couple of weeks ago what kind of pajamas I was wearing and what kind he needed to get for the train ride! I about fell over laughing and said "Dad, YOU don't have to wear your pajamas!" He said later "That would've been kinda dorky, huh?"
I'm almost certain that considering the price we paid for our tickets that we won't get what we paid for and that's okay. The whole reason we're going is because of that little boy. He loves the Polar Express movie. He walks around saying "Tickets please" and "All Aboard" and he walked up to Brandon while they were sitting out back this weekend and said "Wake Up Kid" (quote from movie). But I'm even more sure that the look on Braxton's face when we're on the train and when he sees HO HO and the memories that we make will be worth more than anything I could have paid! And that's worth it right there.
I promise to post pictures as soon as we're back.