Traditions

With Park now two, Carrie and I decided that it was time to start some family holiday traditions. There were lots of ideas thrown around, but we really didn't know what we wanted to do, then we stumbled upon this catalog that made its way into our house after a trip Park took with Grandpa Sam and Grandma Barbie to the local train shop. Actually, "stumbled upon" really isn't the right choice of words, we'd been forced to look at it every single day since Park brought it home and suddenly one day it just hit us over the head.

Like a lot of boys his age, Park loves trains. He loves to look at them, he loves to talk about them and most importantly he loves to play with them, so much so, that we can't drive by the local Barnes & Noble without him freaking out because he knows they have a Thomas train set for kids to play with inside. So it was decided, we were getting a holiday train set and each year we would add a new piece to the display. The set we ultimately decided on was the "Santa's Flyer." It comes complete with a full track and five cars including a peppermint tank car and a music box car. The biggest selling point? Scented smoke. Your choice of apple pie, Christmas tree or candy cane. We went with candy cane.

The one stipulation was that Park was not allowed to play or operate it by himself. That lasted approximately five minutes