The Polar Express

After hearing about this for a couple of years, we finally made it to The Stringtown Railroad's Polar Express.  It was so fun!  This is a small scale working engine that a family owns in Lindon and the tracks go through the neighborhood.  It's free, and it's huge!  They have a great system set up, though, and it ran very smoothly.  You reserve a spot ahead of time online, and when you arrive, you watch "The Polar Express" in a large garage (to keep people from waiting outside in the cold - notice the kids were in their snow gear because it was COLD) until it's your turn.

The train took us around a few houses and we listened to songs from The Polar Express and enjoyed cool lights and decorations on the way to Santa's Workshop.  There, we met Santa and all of the kids received a bell.  Then Santa told everyone about how a candy cane looks like a shepherd's crook, but it also looks like the letter J when you turn it upside down, which stands for Jesus.  It was the perfect segue to the ride back to the station.  Rather than hearing and seeing things related to the secular side of Christmas, the ride back was focused on Christ.  There were huge pictures and displays of the life of Christ, and music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was playing over the speakers.  It was a marked difference, and very powerful.  Back at the station, there were tables set up where people could write cards to LDS missionaries or to deployed military personnel.

Other than the fact that Eliza (once again) didn't want to get her picture taken with Santa, the kids had a great time.  The little train was novel and cool, and the whole experience was really fun.