A Magical Holiday Weekend

Again, I am still trying to catch up from December and all the fun we had surrounding the holidays. One of the things we were most excited about was to go back to the Polar Express again. We went last year for the first time and the difference with this year is that we made plans to do it with cousins this time! We ended up renting a cabin in nearby Waynesville, NC for the weekend. By the time we booked our seats on the train, we weren't able to get a Saturday train ride, but we did get tickets for Friday evening. This worked for us because it made us take Friday off work and extend the weekend a bit!

We all got to the cabin on Friday afternoon just in time to unload all of our stuff and get settled in to the house before we got back in the car and headed to Bryson City for a little exploring around the town and for the train. The cool thing was that even though all of our snow in Greenville had melted by this point, but when we got up to the mountains, there was lots of snow on the ground!

Home away from home for the weekend
(pic taken on Sunday when most of the snow
had melted!)

Check out all of the snow on  Friday when we got there!

We got to Bryson City with the family and wandered around and found some fun photo opps. 

Cousins in "Whoville"

Fun with Uncle Z

Cousins!
Notice how good and sweet all the girls were being for
the picture. And the boys??? Umm yeah.

MaSha with the Grands

Much love

Stokes, Ryan & William

We went to Nate & Nick's, right across from the train depot, for an early dinner. Our train ride was scheduled for 6:15, so we got to dinner around 4:30 or 5! Talk about Early Birds! This is the same place where we ate last year and we were once again pleased with the food and the service that we received here. Even with a large party, we got in and out really quickly, and in plenty of time to catch our train, and we enjoyed the food again!

Good dinner spot for PE

At the Train Depot before getting on the train

Love this mural

The Polar Express is a magical experience, no doubt about it, but add in cousins, aunts, uncles and a MaSha into the mix, and it's unbeatable. This probably sounds so clique, but our kids love each other so much and have the BEST time together. My heart almost bursts seeing them with their cousins. It's a special bond these kids have! Our tight-knit family being together for the Polar Express was completely awesome. 

In case you are wondering, YES, we did all have matching pajamas. It's a Polar Express tradition, and MaSha got everyone in the family these pajamas so that we could all match. I honestly wasn't sure how the big guys would take it, but I am very pleased to report that they were all game. I didn't even hear one single complaint about it! I was especially impressed with Zack, who got dressed in his jammies first out of everyone and even wore a Santa hat to get into the season. I love it so much!

Here's a bunch of random PE pictures (I took quiteeeeee a few!).

Nighttime train ride

Ryan sitting with Dada

"Who is excited?!?!"

2 cuties

Hot chocolate time!

Chocolate chip cookie delivery!

Part of the show

Showing their golden tickets

Getting tickets punched

Time to read the story

Enjoying the book to go along with the audio

Too much chocolate??

Time to dance!

Flossing with the chef!

Ryan was having a blast

Group pic!

Madison, Taylor, Leece and William

Stokes and Anna

Zack and Ashley

Matt and Tara

Thomas, Ryan and me

MaSha and Ryan

Guess who we saw!!!!

Talking to Santa!
*enthralled and in awe*

Ryan with Santa

Showing me their bells
Everyone could hear it!!

Post-train ride family picture

What a fun night! We danced, we sang Christmas carols, we saw Santa and we loved every minute of it!

On Saturday, we started out with breakfast, followed by opening gifts (a kid favorite!). 

Breakfast buffet

Adding sprinkles to MaSha's cinnamon roll Christmas tree cake

Presents!

William snuggling with Aunt Ashley

Present opening whirlwind

Stokes

Ryan with one of his gifts

Cuties

Love these sweet kids!

Once we got showered and ready, we went to lunch at a local sandwich place that was so cute and so tiny. We literally took up about half of the seating inside the restaurant. We all had great little lunches and loved getting to talk to the owners, who were so sweet. After that, we went to mine some gems and do a little shopping at a cute gift shop! 

Getting a quick tutorial

Time to get to work!

Tara and Leece

Thomas was helping Stokes and William

Lewis fam

Matt and Leece

The big girls

William with his gems

Stokes with his gems

This was very cool and the kids found some great looking gems. We then stopped by an awesome gift store and walked around there for a while, anxiously telling the kids not to touch anything. William kept wanting me to buy him Santa figurines! Luckily, no one broke anything (that I'm aware of!). The next plan was to go on back to the cabin and just hang out. On the way back, I got a wild hair and told Thomas that we should go into downtown Waynesville. Even though I was a little tired and would have liked to have a low-key afternoon, I also had heard such great things about the downtown area and knew this was our only opportunity to go see it. We went....and it was so cute! I absolutely loved it, as did the boys, and I was so glad that we took advantage of the opportunity while we could.

Thomas and Ryan found a brewery and MaSha and I took Stokes and William around to window shop and check out the sights.

A small orchestra playing Christmas music
on the sidewalk

Exploring downtown Waynesville

Cute store

Family pic

MaSha and her boys

Look who we ran into!
It was Santa and Mrs. Clause!

The boys got to make charitable Christmas cards at this
wonderful art gallery! They had so much fun decorating
and coloring their cards.

Carolers on the street
Seriously...so cute, right?!?!

Another family picture

I really, really liked Waynesville. Thomas enjoyed watching sports at the brewery. The town really goes all out for Christmas and if going there doesn't put you in the Christmas spirit, I don't know what will!

On the drive back to the cabin, most of the snow had melted away due to the sunny, mild day, and everywhere I turned, it was such a beautiful setting!

Barn

Our horse friend

Relaxing with Ryan

Getting some Aunt Ashley loving

We ordered BBQ take out for dinner on Saturday night and then, since Taylor has a birthday at the end of December, we got to celebrate her birthday a little early so we could all be there! We had banana splits with alllllll the toppings!

Dinner time!

Happy THIRTEENTH birthday to Taylor!!!!

Best dessert!

Sugar high dance party with cousins!

Sooo excited!

On Sunday, we had breakfast, including a hot chocolate bar provided by Aunt Tara, and then got packed up, cleaned up, and all headed back home. It's always sad saying goodbye after having so much fun with these people that we all just love so much! Luckily, we find several times throughout the year to get together and recreate the fun so it's not typically toooo long before we get to hang out again. 

Sunday morning breakfast with hot chocolate!

Once again, the Polar Express did not disappoint. The kids all loved it and I'd dare say that the adults had a fantastic time as well! The whole weekend was one for the memory books.