The Polar Express

The Polar Express on the Heber Valley Railroad-Yesterday afternoon, I was chatting on the phone with my dear friend, Corey Fairholm. (Corey and I are in the Primary Presidency together. She’s the president, the lucky one!) Any who, she mentioned that she was taking her family on the “Polar Express” that evening. I had told her that that was in the plan this holiday season for our family, I just hadn’t had the chance to get around to actually booking tickets, scheduling it with Darrin, etc…

Moments after we got off the phone, she called me back and said that ironically she had 4 extra tickets (2 adults and 2 children). I quickly called Darrin to see if he could actually leave work at 4pm today to make it to the 5pm train ride. He said he could… We met at 4:15, leaving us 45 minutes to drive to a 60 mile away destination in a snow storm…

Ok, after driving like a maniac (90MPH during a snow storm-I prayed the whole way, along with my white knuckles as we drove through Park City!) and several calls to and from Corey telling us we are cutting it VERY SHORT, we literally arrived at 5pm and ran up to the train as they were saying: “Last Call for the 5pm Polar Express!”

We had a lot of fun. Jack loved the idea of being on a real train-diesel engine to be exact, and Jack had to correct me. They served cookies and hot chocolate. We saw Mrs. Claus, elves, and of course, Santa! I think that is what was so special about that night. Jack was so excited to see Santa Claus. Santa passed out bells to all the children and to stay true to the story, Jack lost his bell! (Fortunately, we had Megan’s…) The excitement in the children, that’s what Christmas is all about. It truly made for a special evening-Thank you Corey for thinking of us!!!

Fairholm Family: Paul & Corey (parents), then Emily, Connor,
and the twins: Don & Blake

Thursday, December 13, 2007