Mini Van Express

 This Christmas (2012) Season I wanted to make it special for the kids.  I have had making our own family traditions heavy on my mind. So after scrolling through Pinterest one day, I saw this great idea of doing a Mini Van Express. So here is how our evening went:

 I made these simple yet adequate tickets to put on each of the kids beds. We got ready for what they thought was an early bedtime. Once they were all in their PJs we went to Hayden's room first to get her in her bed when to our surprise we found the first ticket:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pd59UVy1gY&list=UUzNsVkVTRvTlaadmUN59I-w&index=13

Then we progressed to Carter's room to find the second ticket. Hayden's excitement made the whole experience so fun and magical:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFfuWmw5z08&list=UUzNsVkVTRvTlaadmUN59I-w&index=12

Then to Abigail's room we went:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhBSZ2kf2_0&list=UUzNsVkVTRvTlaadmUN59I-w&index=11

From here we went down to the garage where I became the conductor with a hole punch and punched each of their tickets. And no I was not talented enough to punch actual words - Carter was a little bummed about that. Then Matt my co-conductor helped me get all the kids into the car where they each received their popcorn and hot chocolate (it took weeks for me to get all that popcorn out of all the nooks and crannies of the car, but it was WORTH it).

Carter with his hot chocolate and popcorn.

 All aboard the Mini-Van Express!! Choo Choo (or Honk Honk)!!

And off we were to the Longview Lake lights!!

 Not quite thinking it through we went to see the lights on a Friday night so we had to wait in the car line for almost an hour. The kids were able to get out of their seats since the fastest we were going was about 2 mph. They thought it was awesome (for the first 10 minutes).

 Abbie even got to drive and she LOVED it!!!

Finally we got to the lights and really enjoyed them!! My goal was achieved - this will definitely be a family tradition and we definitely had good quality family time together.  My bucket was filled and I was grateful!! The Christmas Season is a busy time for our family regardless of all of the normal Christmas pressures and time constraints since we have 3 birthdays at this time and 3 different birthday celebrations to plan.  I have been so concerned with not letting the pressures over take us and still be able to do fun things and have fun together and enjoy one another and the excitement of the time. I feel like I was pretty successful in achieving this and am excited to share more on the blog what we were able to do to make this goal happen and to grow closer as a family during a special time.