It must be Christmas time in Atlanta

It must be Christmas time in Atlanta...because everyone from Atlanta knows that nothing says Christmas like riding on a little pink train, shaped like a pig, residing in a giant white tent in a mall parking lot...right?

I have NO idea when or why this tradition was started. Actually, I do know when. It was 1953 according to the signs attributing historical significance to this tradition. But, why? Well, good question. All I know is that when I was a kid, we would go to the Rich's building downtown and ride the Pink Pig that was suspended from a monorail on top of the building, freeze our fannies off, and receive a sticker that said "I Rode the Pink Pig" for our troubles. Don't know why, but I always thought that was fun. When I was a kid, it looked like this:

Clearly that was before the childhood obesity epidemic, because looking at it now, I can't figure out for the life of me how anyone ever got into that thing. Now the train is on a track in (like I said before) a big white tent on top of the parking garage at the Lenox Mall Macy's. You still get a sticker that says "I Rode the Pink Pig", you still freeze your fanny off, and well, the kids still think it is big fun. Here are Evan and Lil P waiting for the ride to start. (They said they didn't need daddy OR mommy to ride this year, so we didn't have to cram ourselves in there with them.)

Pressley was much more concerned about buckling her safety restraint than about having her picture made. Why they need safety restraints for a ride that goes approximately 1 mile per hour in a circle (and not on top of a building) is beyond me. Actually, I'm an attorney. I know exactly why they have those restraints. Nevermind.

And here is the whole caboodle of kids who belong to our Sunday school friends (sans Landon because he was having none of it), because for the second year in a row, we made it a fun family outing for the whole class. It really was a lot of fun. And we herded all the kids down the mall (and 3 escalators) to the food court for dinner afterwards. You would think walking from Macy's to the food court would be easy enough, but try it sometime with nine kids aged 2 through 6. Who knew such a short walk could be so stressful!

Tonight, we're off to church to participate in a Gingerbread House Decorating Contest. (Note: I carefully avoided saying we will compete in the contest because my children are 3 and 5 and don't get enough candy at home (in their opinion), so the chance that any of the decorations will actually make it onto the house instead of into their tummies is slim to none. I don't have high expectations, but I will try to remember to take the camera just in case. We're not trying to win any awards, we're just out there makin' memories.