11 grams of sugar

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my true loves gave to me
11 grams of sugar and a kitchen full of flour, woe is me.

The 11 grams of sugar refers to all of the sugar that must have been in the cup of hot chocolate and cookies served on the Santa Train at the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad. Pops and Susan treated us to tickets to ride the Santa Train, and the kids all had a great time. Davey was especially excited about the hot chocolate (he called it his "coffee") and both boys were so amped up on sugar and Christmas joy that by the time Santa came through the car to give each kid a jingle bell, they were bouncing off the seats (and windows). As my dad said, it was the railroad's idea to give the kids a sugar rush, so we didn't feel too bad about the overexcitement that resulted.

It was a beautifully sunny day and we enjoyed the ride immensely. On the return trip, they invited the kids up to the front of the car to sing Christmas carols, and AJ used this as his opportunity to attempt to sneak an additional bag of cookies, which mom vetoed. There was also a book reading, although the railroad was not able to read the traditional Night Before Christmas this year because the publisher started asking for royalty payments. So a book about Christmas on the Iowa prairie written by a local author was read instead by a teenage girl who said "what the heck??" directly into the microphone when she stumbled over the word "Ioway". (Iowa is named for the Ioway Indians who were here in the mid-1850's.) The teenage reader was one of the many volunteers who keep the railroad going for visitors. Most seem to be retirement-aged men who love trains and enjoy dressing up in the railroad gear and basically playing with some very large trains. I think Davey may be happy to join them one day about 60 years from now.