Stef and I took the girls on the Polar Express train in Old Sac last night and what an impression it made on them. If you have kids under the age of six, I would highly recommend this as it can be quite the magical thing.

Reilly is six. Just the age when some of the older kids in school try to debunk the existence of Santa. If I could get a hold of any of these kids I would…express my displeasure in their communication regarding these matters. That being said, Reilly approached the trip to the North Pole with a mild amount of skepticism, but was excited nonetheless.

When the train arrived at the “North Pole”, the first thing Reilly said was “Wow, Santa has lost weight.” Fearing the worst, I really turned on the excitement, desperately trying to distract her from anything mundane. Moments later, Santa entered our rail car. Teagan was overjoyed, Reilly remained fairly calm. He passed out jingle bells to all the kids and gave his ho-ho-ho’s and at one point he stopped, looked at Reiily and said, “I got your letter…you must have written that a couple of days ago.”

I was sitting behind her, and all I saw was her head nodding. She turned around and had a smile that remained present the rest of the evening.

Now, not wanting to get myself into a trap, I didn’t address Santa’s question to Reilly. I later found out from Stef that two days prior, Reilly and her classmates had all written letters to the big guy.

I felt like Fred Gailey on Miracle on 34th Street. I don’t know how much longer we have, but this year, she believes.

The last image was taken after Santa had left the car and the hobo character (from the film) walked through, stopped and said, “How many of you believe?”

I think Reilly’s hand was higher that anyone’s…except mine.