Polar Express

It's real! Amanda, Ben and I went to the North Pole on the one and only Polar Express (of course).

What's a ride on the Polar Express without pajamas?

When we went to California for Thanksgiving my sister-in-law Mary gave me the onsies, and they've come in handy. Shout out to Mary, thanks! :) Ben wasn't as lucky at Thanksgiving and doesn't have any pj's, so he wore my ugly party sweater, Rudolph. He got more compliments in that sweater, than I ever have.

Our ride was filled with cookies, hot chocolate, Christmas carols, Santa Clause, and the highlight of our night, Mrs. Clause. She was much more friendly than Santa!

When we drove by the North Pole their were 5 trees decorated, they need to kick it up in the lights department. If they had a comments box I had a few more ideas on how to spice up the Polar Express. The ticket taker could use a hole punch and punch words into our tickets (like on the movie), the narrator of our train could yell "Look everyone Santa!" we would look out the window and see Santa's sleigh flying in the air. Also, I think little elves should pop their heads up by the window randomly as we travel to the North Pole. Maybe the owner of the train will read this and love my ideas! Overall, it was a fun trip.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas! We'll be enjoying a white one.

I have been chosen

I have finally entered district 12.

I requested this book (or audio CD) way back in June, when I started my internship. I was number 31 on the list and finally my name has been chosen. Thank you Suzanne Collins for making my drive to Salt Lake pleasant, I didn't even mind that it took an extra 40 minutes to get to work due to the snow.

And the White Elephants Begin

Ben had a Christmas work party on Thursday. We all know a Christmas party isn't complete without a white elephant gift exchange. Ben's party was no different, except instead of the usual pass the present to the left 6 times and then to the right 9 times or everyone pick a present and you can steal it 20 times, this version we played incorporated BINGO! All of the presents were assigned a number and if you got BINGO you chose a number between 1 -2o and opened that present.

Not meaning to brag or anything, but I have a BINGO card picking intuition. It happened again and I got BINGO first two times in row. I selected lucky #4 and it just happened to be the biggest present there (everyone knows the biggest presents are the best) and unwrapped this beauty!

We think it's the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, but it's up for interpretation.

Ben got BINGO second and unwrapped this ivory antique!

Literally a WHITE ELEPHANT.

In the game a present can only be stolen twice. Ben's got stolen right off, but he got BINGO again and stole it back. People were eyeing my red, velvet picture, but must have sensed my BINGO card picking intuition and knew I would just steal it back (or they really didn't like it, that's up for interpretation as well).

It was a fun night and I think we went home with some of the funniest white elephants I've seen in all my white elephant gift exchange days. Plus, I think they are going to fit right in with the other Christmas decorations.