First Day of December!

I LOVE December! It's so...holiday like, don't you think? I am also excited that tonight is our home town Christmas parade..I love me a good holiday parade! I remember one of the first parades our little city held. I was in the 7th grade and a member of the drill team-which is now usually called the "dance team". We had two junior high schools in town at the time. On the Eastside campus, they were the Cougars. Their uniforms were green and white. On the good side of town, Westside (the one I attended!) were were the Bulldogs, with our bright red and white. So, at Christmas, can you guess what happened? Yep-they combined the two drill teams to march together in the parade, alternating red uniformed with green. I do remember it being a lot of fun and very cold that night. I don't know why, over 37 or so years later, I vividly remember that night, but I always do. And I usually tell my children about it as we wait for the parade to start. Again.

Last year we sat with Michael and his kiddos for the parade. My nephew, Conner, is a total fire truck fan. Every volunteer fire department in the county has a fire truck in this parade, with Santa coming in on the big ladder truck at the end...very exciting stuff for everyone, but particularly for a (then) 5 year old fire truck nut. Conner, needless to say, was over the moon. Every truck that went by, he shouted out "I LOVE your firetruck!" in a very excited, enthusiastic voice. It made our parade! We had the most fun ever!

I can't wait for tonight. I've got dinner planned for a quick meal so that we can get to the courthouse lawn early enough to see the lighting of the courthouse-it is so beautiful, all decked out with thousands and thousands of tiny white lights. There are displays of holiday scenes all over the lawn, and there will be choirs singing and Santa will sit in the gazebo after his big debut and take requests from excited little men and women...and I'll be sighing contentedly and feeling that all is right with my world---at least at that very moment!! We always take a thermos of hot chocolate and a bowl of popcorn...both of which are usually gone before the parade actually starts. We always wear our Santa hats and have a ball waving at all the Boy Scouts, marching bands and beauty queens. Sigh...so much fun!

Look for pictures and details tomorrow!!

Merry, Merry!

Cathy