Christmas Time is Here (2016 Edition)

This time last year I was struggling for some blog content so I decided to write up a nice entry on the town Christmas parade and other assorted holiday stuff. That post did way better than I expected as apparently people really enjoyed my commentary on what happens in a small town out in the middle of nowhere in southwest Ohio. So, going off last years post, I felt it appropriate to show off what we did yesterday for a Christmas outing.

This year, there was no town parade as the budget didn't allow for it. So instead we headed down the road to West Chester to a place called Entertrainment Junction which has the largest miniature train display in the world and was doing all kinds of Christmas stuff. For 12 bucks per person, we got an all access ticket which allowed us to visit the train display, the seasonal display, and the North Pole Adventure.

When you first walk in to the train display, it can be a bit overwhelming as there are literally trains everywhere. It starts off in the Civil War with very true to life displays from each era and explains how trains helped America build and their importance in each era. Here's a picture of my son at the beginning of the Civil War section.

I can't remember which time period this is from but I think its the 40s and 50s era America display. As you can tell from the picture, it looks like night. That's because there is a really cool effect that happens as the lights dim down and all the lights in the displays come on.

About halfway through the display, there's an overlook where you can go upstairs and see the nearly the entire train display. It's really an amazing sight. On the overlook as well, there is a display and an interactive history of Coney Island, a local amusement park.

Here's one last picture from the main display, this time towards the end featuring a typical big city downtown and trains running through it along with a functional subway. It's worth going here just through the train display alone and I would have been content with just that but there was tons more.

The next thing on our list was the holiday train display which was a giant room with nothing but Christmas stuff everywhere.

Here's a picture me, my wife and my son that my mom took at the holiday train display entrance, along with a picture of one of the cool displays they had. I took a bunch of other pictures of the displays but this was the best one I could find.

Next thing up was the North Pole adventure. The one thing about this was that it was a little hard to find as you had to go in through the funhouse portion to get to it. The line for Santa was long but was pretty cool as you walked in through a reindeer stable, the elves workshop and into the kitchen where Mrs. Claus was serving fresh sugar cookies. After that, each family got a private audience with Santa.

These were the best pictures from our son's visit with Santa. He told Santa he wanted a GS ball (something from Pokemon), a backpack, and WWE. 

After we were all finished at Entertrainment Junction, we headed over to Jack in the Box for some lunch and then over to the store for a few quick pickups. We got home, I cleaned up the last of the leaves that fell from our trees, and by the time I was done with that, it was time for us to head over and see the Christmas lights at Smith Park in Middletown.

The pictures aren't the best but they're the best my wife could manage as we were driving through the display. My phone ran out of memory halfway through the display but I'm happy we were able to get a picture of the epic Santa's Workshop that was set up. 

This was another fun-filled Christmas themed day. Next Saturday, we're all going out again to celebrate my birthday so expect a full report on that. Hope everyone has a great Christmas and a great holiday season if you don't celebrate Christmas. To close out, as I did last year, here's a song that I think really sets the mood for the season:

The Operation Pumpkin Festival

Image from Operation Pumpkin website
www.operation-pumpkin.org

A yearly tradition that my family and I have is to go to the Operation Pumpkin Festival in downtown Hamilton, Ohio. The unique thing about it compared to other local fairs and festivals is that it's held right smack in the middle of downtown Hamilton. My wife likes to go because her candle and cupcake vendors have a booth set up there. I like to go because it's a fall festival. It's a win win for everyone so we headed over last Saturday to check it out.

The festival opens at 9:00 usually but the unfortunate thing about weekend was that is was cold and extremely windy when we went in the morning. So much so that some of the vendors and the rides weren't even open yet due to the wind. In past years, the place has been crazy at 10:00 in the morning but not this year due to the cold and wind. However, the pictures above should give you a general idea of what the festival encompasses. If you look at the top picture, you'll see a monument in the background. That's how far the festival stretches.

Pumpkin carving is one of the draws to the festival. Every year they bring out expert pumpkin carvers to do creative and unusual pumpkins. Their display/workshop in set up right in the middle of one of the main intersections of downtown.

Another major draw is the giant pumpkin weigh-off from the Southern Ohio Giant Pumpkin Growers (SOGPG for short). Some of these pumpkins can weigh in excess of 2,000 pounds. As I'm writing this, the results aren't available yet but just by the pictures, you can see how enormous these pumpkins are. I was also able to snap a picture of my wife and my son next to one.

A few random pictures. The first is a monument in the middle of the street to Alexander Hamilton, who the city was named after. The other one is a giant box of pumpkins that I took while trying to embrace my artistic side.

All the small businesses such as craft boutiques, markets, and bakeries were open as well. We stopped into the Almond Sisters bakery, which is a place that was featured on the local morning news recently and someplace we wanted to try for a while. As you can see by the display cases, they had pastries and cookies of all kinds available. 

We picked up a pumpkin pastry, which was filled with cream cheese and a very nice pumpkin filling, a red velvet ganache brownie which a red velvet brownie topped with chocolate ganache and chocolate chips, and a geode, which is a chocolate chip cooke stuffed with a brownie. The pastry was amazing but the other two things were a bit of a let down. We'll definitely be back though to try some of their Christmas offerings.

On the way out of the bakery, I spotted this graffiti mural on the side of a building ...

Someone is obviously a fan of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and drew this fantastic piece of art. I tried to get a picture of it without the glare from the window but this was the best I could do. All in all, despite the cold, windy weather and the absence of some of the vendors due to such, we still had a great time and definitely will be continuing our tradition next year.