Christmas Train

It was FREEZING, and it was also a warm experience that I shared with my sisters and I'm so thankful I was able to go.
I'm refering to a special place right here in Oklahoma called "The Christmas Train" in a little "town" outside of Pryor called "Dry Gulch". It was started by a pastor by the name of Willie George who leads a pretty popular church here called Church on the Move. He wanted to spread the true story of Christmas so that people from all walks of life could know Jesus.

When the idea was 1st presented to me, my first thought was I really didn't want to freeze and I also had visions of the boys walking around with red cheeks and their noses running all over the place, shouting every 10 minutes or so that they had to go to the bathroom (which, in my opinion should be added as an Olympic event in the wintertime).
But something told me that I don't get to have these opportunites with my sisters all that often and that I should seize this one. I'm glad I did.

It was a true Christmas fairytale. As you enter this little "town", you are greeted by smiling townsfolk dressed in attire that was reminicent of Little House on the Prarie. They open all the doors for you everywhere you go and say with a smile,"Merry Christmas" or "God bless".
The town was lit up with bright white Christmas lights on every building and it was beautiful. The shops and attractions were also from another time and reminded me a little of a smaller version of Silver Dollar City.
But the train was the highlight. It only lasts for about 5 minutes but as you ride they light up huge story boards complete with artistic representations of the birth of Christ and it goes through his life until His death on the cross. I was sitting in the middle of my 4 yr old and my niece (who, when we came upon the scene of Jesus hanging on the cross, said "Why are they torturing Jesus?" - out of the mouths of babes). Like I said, it was a very warm experience and by the end of our short trip through Jesus's life I was tearing up.
We finished our time there with a wagon ride, eating food that cost too much, stuffing ourselves into the shops with people needing their souvenir Christmas ornaments and letting the kids ride the merry-go-round. It was a blast. I think the warmth inside from sharing time with my family outweighed the cold outside. Hope we can do it again next year!