Abundantly Blessed: Who's the kiddo?

This is such a fun time of year....right?!? Usually it is for me, but after nursing a sick baby for over two months and then dealing with my own virus for the past week - I really didn't know how I'd pull together enough energy to help make FC's first holiday season a memorable one. This time last year I wrote about legacy and tradition and how I looked forward to sharing bits of John and I's family traditions with our "peanut" this year. In all seriousness this means teaching FC about our faith and why the holidays are truly important. Another aspect of this is just simple fun - and choo-choo trains!! John has been talking trains for the past few months so I wasn't surprised this week when he informed me that FC and him really needed a train for under our Christmas tree.

John and I both shared trains with our grandfathers. John and his Grampy and myself and my Pappy. I remember sitting on my grandfather's lap and him controlling the gauges with my hand. As a child, my grandfather built a simple platform for our tree to stand on with a train track running around it. My brothers and I would spend our evenings playing with the train. John did too. So, we decided to pass this rich tradition on to our daughter - I really didn't think she'd enjoy it much this year, but I was wrong! She has had so much fun with the trains this weekend - I can't wait to see what she thinks of them as she gets older.

Side note: our steam engine is the "Strasburg" engine - and actual steam engine still running in Lancaster County, PA - close to where I was raised. This past summer FC, John, myself, and my Mom visited Lancaster and rode on the train while on vacation. So when we found this engine at our local hobby store we just couldn't pass it up!