It all started with Greg and his brothers delivering letters to Santa from their kindergarten classes. Now it is Jadon’s turn to hold on to the tradition to go to the North Pole. We told the kids we were going to North Dakota/Minnesota for Christmas. Which of course is true, but we took a detour to the North Pole first to see Santa. Getting to North Pole, Alaska was the easy part of this trip, a direct flight to Fairbanks, AK with a 20-minute car ride to the North Pole. We arrived into Fairbanks early enough to go play in the pool together as a family. My kids love to swim.
The next morning we were off to see Santa’s workshop, drop off letters, visit Santa’s reindeer and play at the ice park. A few weeks prior to the trip, Jadon made a candy cane out of beads for Santa and stuck in his stocking. He then wrote a letter to Santa telling him to look for his gift from him. Instead of Santa finding it in his stocking on Christmas Eve, Jadon was able to give it to Santa personally along with his letter. Precious Mom moment!
Santa told our kids that Donder and Dasher got into a fight last night and were missing antlers. We all got a kick out of that when we saw Donder and Dasher. They still had blood on the heads from the fight.
We had a blast at the Christmas in Ice park. Rahab actually enjoyed the ice and cold more this time. When we were here for Esther’s kindergarten year, she screamed every time we went outside. This time was much more enjoyable all around. They enjoyed playing on the ice train, schoolroom, and maze. We spent most of our time on the ice slides, a favorite. The ice rink castle was also a favorite. It was fun to see my kids enjoy walking/running on the ice. Something I did every winter for 22 years of my life.
After all fun was had we headed to Greg’s favorite BBQ place in Fairbanks. Yum! Then off to the airport to start the long trip to MSP. The hope was to take the all night flight from SEA to MSP, but that did not pan out. There was a canceled flight out of FAI to ANC, and the flight we were going to be on FAI to SEA was diverted to ANC to accommodate those passengers then onto SEA. Several hours and missed flights later we got onto a flight going to ANC, it arrived on Jadon’s birthday 12:01am.
-Chris