when we opened our advent calendar for december 17th, we found a slip of paper telling us that this was the day to ride the walkersville southern railroad’s santa train! hooray! we missed the train last year, and couldn’t wait to see the big guy again this year…

we had a nice, long scenic ride before santa came and sat down next to us!

when the big guy finally arrived, the kids were pretty shy. after some prompting, jackson was able to tell him a few things from his list. and give him a hug. phoebe? none of the above.

hooray for the walkersville southern! we’ll be back for another excursion soon!!

shortly after arriving home from our whirlwind tour of eastern pennsylvania, our family’s portable hard drive took a turn for the worse and we thought all (meaning our last 6 years’ worth of personal images and videos) was lost. after a few friends tried to help out, we turned to some pros. and voila! we got everything back, including all our videos! yay!

so, here it is, our long overdue post on our fun times in doylestown during the holidays!

presents, presents, cute baby girls and snow!

we enjoyed ourselves for almost a whole week in d-town, meeting our newest niece, ginger miriam, having a date night with matt and naomi (way too much fun, needs to be done more often) and just plain hanging out with grandma and grandpa. along the way we took a few pics, but for the most part we just enjoyed everyone’s company. looking forward to a planned trip out west to see more of the idaho spences soon!

look what santa brought jackson… a big kid bike! super cool, dude!

the girls and their aprons from jan.

it’s the crazy hat family!

got your hands full there, matt!

the girls loved taking baths together! lots of splashing all around!

jackson thought the girls were wacky!

naomi trying to read the girls a story, but there was just too much squirming!

ginger is a master of the serious stare. but get her started on laughing or talking and watch out! she’s a riot!

she’s not a fan of the hugs, phoebe.

phoebe and daddy had fun in the snow…

…and big brother jackson loved it, too!

many of you have watched and enjoyed the santa train video dave posted a few weeks ago. we wanted to upload some nice still images we took that day as well. for background info … dave, molly, jackson, and phoebe climbed aboard the walkersville southern railroad’s santa train on dec. 12. it was a cold but clear day — perfect for a scenic ride through the countryside.

jackson isn’t big on talking to unfamiliar people. and when we walked past santa at a shop this year, he said he didn’t want to talk to him. ever.  so molly figured we should bring the letter jackson wrote and he could show it to santa on the train if he didn’t feel like talking…

jackson got warmed up when the conductor, george wireman, paid us a visit to collect our tickets. we loved him! he visited every seat, and insisted on a photo with all the children. he even showed us his cool train-engraved pocket watch!

after that, we waited… and waited… for the big guy…

phoebe was a very patient traveler

finally, jackson spotted st. nick! he told molly she’d better move off the seat so santa could sit down and talk to him!

and sit down he did… jackson managed to not only talk to santa, but also give him a big hug! dave and molly couldn’t stop smiling in disbelief.

it must have been something about being aboard a train, because jackson did NOT want to cooperate with taking this picture, once we disembarked. ah, the mind of a 3 year old!