A North Pole Experience
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Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Today I thought I would share a personal trip that involved a North Pole Experience with my beautiful family. Last weekend we packed up and headed to Flagstaff so our kids could see the fat man.
After hearing wonderful reviews about the North Pole Experience we booked our trip and waited for November 24th to arrive. The weather forecast was calling for snow in the high country the whole weekend so our excitement only grew. I know our friends and family in the mid-west would most likely scowl at the thought of driving to snow, but living in the desert makes you miss it. Nonetheless we made our way to the Little America Hotel to pick up our golden tickets for the magic trolley that would take us to the North Pole.
Christmas decorations were everywhere in the lobby of Little America. One could not help but get into the Christmas spirit (even before Thanksgiving). Our magic trolley arrived and the kids were excited that we got the Snowball Express as opposed to the Candy-cane Express. Along the way our elf leader taught us the magic poem that would transport us to the North Pole.
Upon arriving we entered the first room of Santa’s workshop, the Hall of Fame for toys. Some of Santa’s classic toys were on display (who remembers Lite Brite?). Of course the elves had to go over some rules and regulations as well before we could get to the good stuff. After all we were going into a real working factory. Once inside the children were matched up with one of the elves who would need their help in making toys. Kaeden and Cole were able to dress some teddy bears as a part of their assignment.
All work and no play is something that doesn’t happen at the North Pole. Kaeden and Cole were taught the fine art of shooting foam missiles across the room. These were an instant hit as you can imagine. I tried my best to sneak in on the action but they wouldn’t give them up.
After all that play we made a quick stop by the toy sorting room. There we saw huge bins being filled with this year’s bounty for “nice list”. We were moved along to one of my favorite areas, the kitchen. The kids were served sugar cookies and Snow Man Soup. Snow Man Soup was very similar to our hot chocolate. As the children ate, the elves lead them in a few traditional Christmas songs. We were quite impressed by the voice of the elf pictured below. If she wanted to give up her day job for singing I think she has a shot!
Being a part of Santa’s team means you need to know the rules of the North Pole. Thankfully they had Elf University for us to stop in and learn. There the children learned all about being nice and helpful.
Upon graduation we exited out to the mail room. Letters and more letters to Santa could be seen throughout the room. Man, he gets a lot of mail! This stop provided a chance for the kids to get their Christmas list written down and dropped off to Santa early.
With our letters mailed next up was some time with Mrs. Claus. She shared a few stories about Santa and some of the tricks he uses to deliver all those presents in one night.
Our next stop was the garage to see Santa’s wheels, err I mean runners. The sled was massive as you can imagine. I was hoping to take it out for spin but I was warned that might put me on the “naughty list”. Definitely don’t want to be on that one. And then our grand finale was so see Santa Claus. I mean that was the reason we came all the way to the North Pole! We made our way in to see the Big Guy and he was ready and waiting. Our kids are pros at this now. No more screaming baby with Santa pictures now. They each told Santa about the highlights of their lists and gave Santa a big hug.
Making toys, singing songs, writing out Christmas lists, and eating sugar cookies made for quite an evening. Of course all good things must come to an end and our time was up. The magic trolley was waiting on us to whisk us back to Flagstaff. We posed for one final picture at the North Pole before our return.
What an amazing adventure we had traveling to the North Pole. Santa has a pretty slick operation up there. I can’t wait to see what he brings us this year!
