All Aboard The Christmas Train

When Jack and Tommy were almost three, we went to Sam's Club for a look at what was there for Christmas decorations.

It was a great Christmas that year.  It was Anna's first Christmas, and the boys were excited.  

On that visit to Sam's, there was a display of a large LGB style Bachmann train set. The boys were excited.  I was too.  

I slid it into the cart.  Jack rode inside the chrome shopping aide. "All aboard," he shouted all the way to the check stand.

Tommy insisted running at the side of the cart, so he could see the picture of the frontier train.  He had been inside it with Jack, but he had learned that we occasionally placed things into the cart and then put them back on the shelf.  The boys decided to monitor the situation, Jack from the inside and Tommy from the ground floor.  

"Toot, Toooooot!" Tommy imitated the whistle he imagined the train make on the packaging.  Both boys repeated their comments until we loaded the prize into the car outside the store.  

The next morning, I opened the box in the front room, where we planned to set up the tree.  Both boys were impossible, because they were so excited, and the only way I could keep them out of the train box was to have them sit on my back.  

It was a great Christmas with all the grandchildren home that year.  Cles and Leslie were the only ones who couldn't make the trip.  
The train became a holiday tradition.  It takes at least four hours to set it up correctly, but as soon as I have the connections perfect and the batteries installed, I start the train in motion.  It makes a chugging sound, and the headlamp shines in the darkness.  Batteries also light the passenger cars, when I engage them, but I usually avoid using it.  It's the paranoia about having the batteries rust and ruin the cars, so we only use them rarely.  Neither Jack nor Tommy really even notice when the lights are on, so at this point, we wait for a few years.  I turn them on only once on Christmas Eve and then quickly remove the batteries.
The engine and cars are classic, and it makes each Christmas fun.  This year was a first.  Ann and I would be watching television, and we could hear Jack play with the train, sending it on another trip around the tall tree surrounded by gifts.
The caboose is a classic Western piece.

It was fun to take a few tiny film clips of the actual train as it makes its loop around our tree in Christmas of 2008.  This was the night in January when we put all the decorations away.  This year was the first time we didn't get our nutcrackers and incense burners out for the holidays. The first clip is a classic, because Jack is playing some little instrument like a kazoo.  

We wanted it really quiet, but since he wants to make science fiction movies when he grows up, I think Jack was thinking that he was doing the musical score.

The second version has the best view of the train, and I don't think it includes the kazoo.