Our Life in the Windy City: The Christmas Train...and a Sad Day...

At Christmastime, the CTA (that is, Chicago Transit Authority) makes a Christmas train.

I had never experienced the Christmas train, but I had heard rumors that one of the train cars was Santa in a sleigh! This sparked my interest.

So, I checked the schedule online. As it turned out, the Christmas train was going to be running along the Brown line one night right around the time that I would be coming home from work! The trick of it was this: it would be running southbound, while I was traveling northbound. But back to that later.

The same day that I was planning to catch the Christmas train, Luke called me at work, letting me know that he had gotten out early from his work. I checked the clock, and the timing was perfect.

"Luke," I exclaimed, "if you hurry to the el stop, you can catch the Christmas train!!!"

The train was scheduled to arrive at Merchandise Mart (the stop where Luke gets on from work) in just minutes.

Just as I had hoped, the train pulled up to the platform just as Luke was getting there. As he got on the train, he narrated to me what it was like. The entire train was decorated with lights. The seats were Santa seats. The poles were decorated with candy canes. Christmas carols played over the loudspeaker! ELVES HANDED OUT CANDY CANES AS YOU GOT ON!!!

I knew then that I needed to get on that train that evening.

So, at 5:00 (or maybe 4:58 if you want to be literal about it), I gathered my things and left the office, anxious to see Santa and have my first candy cane of the season.

Hopped on the red line...Chicago, Clark&Division, North&Clybourn...check my watch...still time...Fullerton, Belmont. At Belmont I transferred to the Brown Line, where I kept my eye carefully both on the time, and on the window (just in case the train was running early, and passed me by).

Now, like I said before, the Christmas train would be running southbound, so in order to catch it I would have to have the timing just right. By the time I got to Western, I was confident that the time was right. I could get off of my northbound train, go to the other side of the track, hop on the Christmas train (which would arrive in just two short minutes) for a stop or two, and then catch a northbound again to Luke's, where we were going to order a pizza.

So I got off, and crossed over, and waited. And waited.

Finally, there was a train on the horizon!

This, however, turned out not to be the Christmas train. In fact, another train passed before the conductor on the third train finally explained to us (us being myself and the two sets of parents with small children-the only other people waiting for the Christmas train) that the Christmas train had had an equipment problem, and would be arriving in about 10 minutes.

Being the...efficient (Luke might say impatient ; ) ) person I am, I thought to myself, "Ok, well that's perfect! I can ride the train back two stops to Kedzie, and then take the Christmas train to Luke's stop! That way I won't have to back track so much!"

So I crossed to the other side and caught a northbound train. Made it to Rockwell...no sign of the Christmas train...this will work out perfectly!

Ok, now on to Kedzie...

But before Kedzie, the train stopped. I started to shift in my seat, anxious about making it in time to see the Santa seats, and hear the carols over the intercom.

I knew then though that it would be too late. And sure enough, minutes later, my train still standing on the tracks, I saw this: