The Christmas Train

Since we were staying in Houston for Christmas this year, it became important to me to take the kids on some type of special Christmas outing.  I'm not entirely sure why, but in my mind it needed to be done.  There are several options around TX, but not all of them are close (I mean, hours of driving) or cheap (a couple hundred bucks?!).  And I was able to remind myself that my children are still young, which means their attention spans are small and their thresholds for "magical" still relatively low.  Excellent.  So after some research, we headed to "The Christmas Train" in Alvin.

Although another suburb of Houston, it took almost an hour to get there.  So Sam, who 'doesn't need a nap anymore,' fell asleep on the way there. 

After we claimed our boarding passes, we took a quick walk around the lake to get our warm pizza dinner.  Ended up needing to eat quickly, but that was probably for the best - waiting for a train is hard! 

We returned to the boarding platform just as they were loading our train.  What type of train?  The kind at Hermann Park or the Columbus Zoo.  The train ride itself was probably about 15 minutes, but it went through tunnels and light displays, and there were signs to read along the way explaining the story and meaning of Christmas.  The kids really enjoyed it.

When we were done, we checked out an enormous train display that  I do believe my children could have stared at for hours.  Young kids and their trains.  We had to pry them away.  With the promise of candy canes in the car.  (but just the fruity kind for Sam, he doesn't like mint.  Annabelle likes the minty ones.)

It was a fun evening.  No massive crowds, impressive for December 21.  The right amount of time and excitement for our still-young crew.  What Christmas Outing should I plan for next year...