Christmas Train!

What a great and festive day! We  boarded a vintage Fillmore and Western Railway train Sunday for a picturesque trip through orange groves to a Christmas tree lot and "Santa's Village" setup.

My beautiful girls! 💗

Stace has a new phone with a great camera, so he had fun with it.

We let the girls wander down the train to the dining car and the open-air caboose, giving them the phone to stay in touch and take photos. Love this selfie Cora took! (See, they DO love each other.)

Santa Claus was on board, too, passing out candy canes. This particular one was raised in the States but born in the UK to an Irish mum and Liverpudlian father.

Oh, my heart!

We found the perfect tree!

And it didn't have a price tag, but the lovely employee gave us a great deal, about $20 less than similarly sized trees. There's the spirit of Christmas!

Since we're home this year, we thought it would be nice to have a real tree.

Violet wrote a quick letter to Santa - her wish for a dirt bike seemed a little far-fetched since she's never mentioned wanting one to us before.

The stand had animals to look at, a large produce stand and an antique and garden shop. It was fun to walk around for an hour before we boarded the train again.

The trees were all wrapped and put on the train for us.

We had a lovely time, and though I doubt we'll make it an annual tradition (it was pricey), it is something we'll always remember.

Tree strapped down, ready to go back home! You can see the train in the background.