Who Are We Here To See?!

Traditions can be the double-edged sword of parenthood.  On one hand, you are setting up comfortable expectations of good times and family, and on the other, you are stuck in a stale rut since your routine has very little variation, particularly around the holidays.  While my children take comfort in annual events, there is a palpable lack of enthusiasm when you go to the well too many times.  There is also the reality that your children are often able to disrupt the best-laid plans of ... well, you know the rest.  Whether it's an illness, injury, or something else entirely, the numerous variables children bring into play will often take precedence over whatever plans us parents have made.

To counteract this reality, my wife and I make a habit out of keeping our best-laid plans a secret for as long as possible.  In short, everything is a surprise.  If it's a tradition or a new event, we keep them in the dark until the last minute as a safeguard against the unexpected.  When you have amazing plans thwarted by an emergency room visit or a sudden onset of the stomach flu, what softens the blow is not having to tell the children it's their fault — because it's not.  The problem is explaining that to someone who sees the world very literally (i.e. very black and white).  No amount of reassurances will undo the guilt they feel.

Long before we ever knew about The Polar Express as an option for the Christmas season, we had a tradition of going to our local train museum for The Santa Train.  Pay a few bucks, get a cool train ride on the the gold standard for transportation from a century ago, and meet Santa.  We also get to check out all the restored trains inside the museum — and my son absolutely LOVES trains.  It's hard to call that anything but money well spent.

Subsequent visits to The Santa Train notwithstanding, that first year stands out for many reasons.  My son's love affair with trains started while watching Thomas and Friends before he could speak.  When he was three, we gave him a train table for Christmas, only to be woken the next day at dawn by my son's thunderous declaration: "All the board!  Welcome to the island of Sodor!"

A year later, on that first Santa Train, we somehow managed to keep our children in the dark even after boarding the train.  When the conductor entered our car, he drew everyone's attention and asked, "Is everyone ready to meet our special guest?"

"Yes!!"  Chorused the children on board.

"Are we here to see The Easter Bunny?"  Asked the conductor playfully.

"Nooooooo!"  

"Who are we here to see?!?!"  He prompted.

Before anyone could utter a syllable, my four year old son threw both fists into the air and exclaimed, "THOMAS!!!!"

Every adult on board burst into laughter, including me and my wife.  My children were clearly the last to know who we were there to see.  Although the train we were on was really old and amazing to see in person, it was not the "Thomas" pictured here (we saved that surprise for another day).  

In the end, they were very excited to see Santa on The Santa Train, but for my four year old son, nothing quite compared to seeing "Thomas," because all trains were "Thomas" to him.