Life

Saturday after lunch we headed to

Dover. The roads were kinda bad but we managed okay. We went straight to Warthers Museum, a little known treasure in northeast Ohio. It's much bigger than I remember it from my youth; they do a much better job displaying the intricate train carvings. Warther essentially carved the history of the steam engine out of wood and ivory, from age 28 to 68. The Smithsonian has estimated his collection as "priceless" and none have ever been sold. This photo is the Lincoln funeral train. It's really incredible that this guy with a second grade education carved these intricate, moving trains and never sold one, even when he needed money.

We then headed to the Trainmaster Inn next door to the Dennison Depot where the Polar Express leaves from. Former Senator Greg DiDonato owns it and we booked all three rooms for us and the neighbors. It was nice staying in a b&b, we could never do that with the kids at their ages unless we booked the whole place.

We ended up getting pizza and eating there because 2 other families joined us. Then it was off to the train station, a short block walk away. The train ride was fun, the kids always enjoy it and the North Pole even had live reindeer this year. Santa joined us for the ride back to the station. We watched a little football but almost everyone went to sleep early, the kids were very excited about the whole thing.

We got up and drove to our tree farm and were disappointed with the selection this year. There wasn't anything great so we didn't cut anything down and didn't even buy one at their lot. We ended up stopping at a nursery in New Albany and getting a great tree from a lot; the boys were sleeping so we told Henry that Santa must have put it on our roof when we were driving. We wen to the Columbus Academy open house that afternoon. I don't know if we'll send the boys there but I wanted to check it out. Two teachers for 17 students in kindergarten, pretty strong but we expected that.

We decorated the tree and the house last night. Tonight we are off to the Boich Christmas party which is always the best, most extravagant event we go to. I'll post some more photos from the weekend.