North Pole Express Giveaway! — Winner is Stacey!

Yesterday we rode the Heber Valley Railroad‘s North Pole Express, and it was very winter-y and Christmas-y and old-fashioned locamotive-y. Molly gurgled and nursed in her bunny suit, Callie loved the cookies, Avery asked for seconds of the hot chocolate, and Lucy nodded and nodded wide-eyed when Santa talked to her. He was a great Santa, obviously not your average drunken mall Santa, but a great gauge-er of children’s comfort levels and good with a range of ages. When Lucy was too shy (or too on-the-spot) to say what she wants for Christmas, he asked if she would write him a letter later.

You might think that anyone can be Santa, but really it takes a lot of skill if you’re not going to have adults lamenting tragic Santa’s lap experiences years later. This Santa knelt down to be on the kids’ level with no scary throne-link approaching required. Very nice.

Tom got a little carrolled-out by the end (maybe the third rendition of Twelve Days of Christmas did him in? Though it was Callie who ran up to the microphone to sing it just one more time), but overall it was a great family outing. (Tom also asked me, as we drove north up Provo canyon, if we were going to the same train we’d stopped to look at on the way to Moab in October. If you know Utah at all, this might give you some hint of what I’m dealing with directionally-challenged-spousally-speaking,  seeing as the rest stop with the train exhibit is on the way south to Price.)

And now you too can take your family on the North Pole Express. Leave a comment by Sunday night for the chance to win four tickets on the 5 pm train next Thursday, December 16th. If you tweet or tell a neighbor about the giveaway, let me know for another entry. This is actually a pretty great giveaway (I mean both money- and magic-wise). I’ll announce the winner on Monday, and in the meantime, get $5 off coach tickets on December 7, 8, 9, 14, 15 or 16th. Call the train at 435-654-5601 and ask for the “Utah Blogger” discount — tell them you heard about it on Seagull Fountain (which doesn’t really make sense because fountains can’t talk (and this isn’t a podcast), but whatever).

***Contest closed, winner (according to random.org) is #7, Stacey! Look for an email from the prize administrators.

*Heber Valley Railroad gave us a free ride, which was awesome, because no matter how magical things are, I’m still pretty cheap.