Our trip to the North Pole and Stocking Stuffers!

So this was back a while ago but we took the North Pole express with the little man earlier this month! It was a lot of fun, and nice to introduce Andrew to new traditions!

The train depot is about a 45 minute drive from home in Parrish, FL. We picked up our tickets at will call and then walked around the grounds until we found our train car. It was a 30 minute trip to the North Pole (Jesse said that Santa used his magic to make the North Pole our "Southern" temperature so we would be comfortable and not too cold haha) - also, along the way we passed by a factory with tall red and while stacks and the warning lights for aircrafts that the workers said was Santa's workshop lol!

Once there we made a beeline for Santa! It was inside a house and the kids went in one at a time. They made it very calm inside, and Santa was very nice. Still, Andrew has entered a very bashful stage again this month so he clung to me with all his strength and flipped out when we sat down.... here's a look:

Poor little guy, haha! He at least very much liked the ornament Santa gave him :)

We walked around a bit, sat by a fire pit, had hot cocoa and cookies, we all sat and had dinner/ chatted with another family and Andrew was changed on the floor of a portapotty. You'd think at a family event like that they'd have a changing table but no. No they did not.

All in all it was a lot of fun. It was a little long of a time, and was pretty chilly on the way home but otherwise lots of fun! Maybe something to repeat, but in a closed car so it's not as chilly. Also hoping to start the Nutcracker tradition next year as he officially gets put in ballet in 2015! Hehe, I've been planning this for ages. Yay for ballet schools offering free tuition for boys :)

Stocking stuffers are one of my new favorite things this year. In my family it's always been things like pencils, post-its, rulers, etc... cute but a bit hard to find use for sometimes. This year we tried to be more creative.

Pretty happy about this year's stocking stuffers- maybe I'll get some new and better ideas for 2014! :)

TTFN <3