Yesterday the Jackson cousins were going to have a polar Express party at Donna Marlene's. We were originally going to skip it. Then they asked us if we wanted to video chat with them live. I considered saying no because I didn't want my kids to see a party going on that they couldn't go to. But then I decided we could just have our own party and enjoy it with them long distance.
So I brought home some large boxes from work, and yesterday the girls and I spent between four and five hours turning those boxes into our own miniature polar Express for them to sit in while watching the movie. in retrospect the process of making the train was probably as much if not more fun for them as the actual watch party. Clara in particular had a lot of input and was excited to add glue to construction paper. They both were excited to press the construction paper onto the box. I also sketched out the words "The polar Express" in fancy lettering and then Clara traced over it with a purple crayon. It was a long but pretty fun project and I was really happy with the result.
The train was done a few hours before the movie, and the kids got to play with it plenty. Clara put a cap on jingle Bear and have him sit in the engine and be the engineer. She also wrote hers and her siblings names on each of their respective train cars.
We dressed the kids and ourselves in St Louis blues pajamas as an homage to last year's polar Express. We gave the kids bowls of zebra popcorn and Jack made them hot chocolate. We let the girls drink theirs out of the polar Express mugs with straws. Then we video chatted with the Jacksons for probably 10 or 15 minutes and it was pretty adorable. The cousins took turns showing each other their polar Express setups. Marlene had made a train of boxes also for because the cousins to sit in. The girls were excited to show our train and our little people Nativity set and our mugs. The cousins washed it all with appropriate interest and showed their treasures too.
When it was time to watch the movie we turned off all the lights except for the Christmas lights. I gave the kids blankets to have in their respective train cars. Of course Calvin didn't last long before he tipped right out of his, and eventually Jane was too nervous with the creepy parts of the movie and wanted to sit with Jack and me on the couch. But Clara stayed in her caboose the entire time.
I think the best moment was right before the movie was starting and Clara could not contain her excitement. She kept saying she was so excited and stimming and even holding her breath a little bit. That alone might have made it worth it to me.
And as a bonus I even was able to write a lot of my Christmas cards while they were watching the movie.
No comments:
Post a Comment