The Fantasy of Lights Parade is a special thing around our house, particularly because it was the first date Phil and I ever went on, some 19 years ago! I met Phil's whole family that night. We got stuck in traffic and finally detoured to Silverman's for Hot Chocolate, and I thought my Nana (who was waiting for me at home) was going to kill me for being so late!
Some things have changed over the years,
but not how much I love
being out in the cold, at a parade, with this guy:
Over the years, we have made it out to the parade a handful of times. We took Seth at 2 months old. I took the kids in 2005, when I was working overnights at Target and commuting 2 1/2 hours. You know, just crazy stuff like that! But this year was the first time our whole family made it there together. Well, OK... let's be real. Nothing is ever easy, and Phil had to work late, so we didn't really arrive together, but we did find each other...
Ready to Walk Downtown:
Now, I'm relatively good at scoping out good parade watching spots, so we managed to squeeze in between a couple of blankets that had surely been set out hours ahead of time, and the kids got a prime spot on the curb. I'm also sort of... shall we say... thrify, but it my excitement to get downtown early, I forgot to feed the kids. This resulted in an $18.00 trip to a hot dog vendor. I probably should have thought this through a little bit better, because I left Seth, Grace, Caleb, and Miah to guard our spot and then Ian and I had to figure out how to carry 6 hot dogs and 6 lidless cups of hot chocolate between the two of us. Let's just say a whole lot of hot dogs were stuffed in Ian's coat pockets, and we might have had a little bit of a spill...
My Little Hot Dog Man:
In the end, Grandma, Grandpa, and Daddy did find us. Funny little aside, Grandma was calling us on her cell phone and didn't realize that she was standing, literally, right behind us...
Oh! There They Are:
And the parade was great!
Some of the Floats:
I thought the School Bus that had impaled
Santa's reindeer team was a little disturbing...
Oh, wait... Maybe it's supposed to be a sleigh...
Someone in our family was super excited to see Santa:
Uh... It might not be who you think:
I think maybe the funniest part of the night was when Miah was doing the royalty wave at all of the people on the floats! She also wanted to ride the horses and was very upset about being in her stroller. When we got home and I was getting her to bed, later, she said, "I thought this was my parade!" Oh, Queen Miah...
The walk back was an eventful one, since Grandma decided we should stroll through the streets, where the horses had just been... and the flat tires on the stroller didn't really help, either, but what is life without a little bit of comic relief?
Some more hot chocolate and pie at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and it was time to head home.
Good stuff. Good life. Good night!
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