Trains, Holidays, and Father Christmas

Trains and Christmas have forever been linked in my life. After we left Missouri my parents and I lived in Philadelphia and then Chicago. I'd say two or three times we found ourselves on The Broadway Limited, the train between Chicago and New York, on Christmas night. Either heading from Philadelphia to Chicago; or later after we moved to Chicago, to Connecticut, always to visit family.

I remember a cold Christmas night waiting for the train in the dark at the North Philadelphia railroad station. One of my favorite photos is of my Great Aunt Margaret and I on a bench at Union Station before we left Chicago to go back home to Philadelphia. Or my father telling stories to all the kids in the slumbercoach with a kangaroo puppet I had while heading to New York, and then Connecticut.

Then there's the model trains. I think I can distill down what was on my Christmas list to two or three things between the age of 6 and 18: Model trains and or music. So yeah, there's a very strong association between trains, travel and Christmas.

So I'm excited about Father Christmas arriving in Warrensburg on Saturday December 7 on the 9:34AM CST Amtrak train. The Warrensburg Chamber of Commerce has invited us all to come out and welcome him to Warrensburg, and Center Stage Academy will be performing clips from the Nutcracker at 9:00AM CST.

You'll forgive me if I'm busy looking at the train and getting lost in thoughts of Christmas trips past. I'm sure Father Christmas will understand.