Holiday Train

We decided to somewhat ignore the weather advisories tonight and headed south to Hankinson to watch the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train roll through. The event was pretty short, but just right for a night out in the snow. It was about 20 degrees for the concert, but a great time was had by all. We pulled into town just as the train was pulling up.

Santa started off the festivities.


A little chilly, but everyone was having a good time.


Each car of the train was decorated for the event.


Trains, Santa, and loud music. What else does a boy need?


The band was lead by Melanie Doane, a Canadian who plays a mean fiddle.


Before the train left, I was able to run up by the engine to get a picture of the lights.

Christmas Program Time!

Alison and Eli had their Christmas program at church tonight. Both of them did great, despite some concerns that Eli would have a meltdown before getting up to the front. But, typical Eli, he was resistant to practice, resistant to leave the house, wouldn't go up to the front for Children's Chat today during the regular church service, but then showtime comes...



Apparently he got over his stage fright. Alison, on the other hand, was ready to go from the beginning and was more than happy to get into the show.



Small town church. Good thing they built the new building, I can't believe how many kids are in the congregation.

Let's do the time warp again

It's still October, right? What? December? That can't be right...oh well, here goes.
Alison and Eli still have the proper level of cuteness to score really big on Halloween. Eli was a monkey and Alison was a belly dancer/genie/whatever. Whenever anyone would ask what she was, she would just respond "Well, the package said 'Harem'". It was a great way to say "I don't care, I just thought it looked cute".

I finally decided that it was time for new shocks on the Tahoe, and rather than bring it in, I replaced them almost all by myself in the garage. Eli took great pride in helping me out.

This past weekend we really got into the holiday spirit. Alison had practice for the Christmas program at church, followed by her first skating lesson of the new session. After the lesson was done, she said the teacher wanted to talk to me. As it turns out, the teacher felt Alison should have been passed the previous session, so now she gets to move up to Basic 3!
After the lesson, we went back to Horace to visit Santa - he just happened to be in town. The Lions Club hosts an event at the community center each year, and servers sloppy joes and the kids all get small gifts. Other than having to wait in line for a long time, it's a neat setup.





After visiting Santa, we got home and decorated the tree.





We also gave making a gingerbread house a try - it worked, for the most part. And it's from a kit, we're not that ambitious.