All aboard!

We took the first and second grade classes for a ride on the Polar Express today. Well, we used our imaginations to pretend that the chairs lined up in the classroom were the seats on the train, anyway. It certainly seemed real, since the kids were required to have tickets and the conductor (my hubby John, in a three piece suit!) punched the tickets before they came inside from the playground.

We listened to Chris van Allsburg's magical story read by William Hurt on cassette, complete with train whistle and steam sounds and, of course, the lovely ring of the bells on Santa's reindeer. The kids listened very well. They were wide eyed at some of the pictures, especially the one of all the elves at the North Pole. I was heartened to see how much they enjoyed the simple story and beautiful illustrations, in this day of slick digital effects (I'm sure they all have seen the movie as well, but I realized anew this morning that the story itself is what holds the wonder).

After the story, we drank hot chocolate (stirred, of course, with candy canes...the fact that they disappeared turned into a vocabulary/science lesson on "dissolving"), ate "candies with nougat centers" (aka Milky Way bars) and delicious home baked cookies (courtesy of Macky's mom), played a rousing round of "The Conductor Says" (Lupita won for the second year in a row, having won last year as a first grader - she really pays attention!), and gave each other Christmas hugs and presents. We gave each child a bell on a ribbon; most of them tied the bells to their wrists, and the classroom was soon filled with the sweet sound of ringing. I loved that sound!

"Though I've grown old, the bell still rings for me as it does for all who truly believe."