The Holiday Season is Definitely Upon Us!

This weekend was the first of many busy weekends! We somehow managed to cram in 2 parades, a living windows event, 3 hours of work, a little shopping and about 3/4 of the Christmas decorating. Yikes!

First....Living Windows....

This is an event that we attend every year. For those who don't know what it is, our downtown area is decorated & the store windows are filled with living people doing holiday activities (dancing, caroling, baking/decorating cookies, etc...) There is always tons of people, lots of yummy goodies (cookies, apple cider, hot chocolate, cinnamon roasted nuts....my personal favorite!, etc...). The only downfall is they somehow manage to schedule it on the absolute COLDEST day of each season. We always freeze and can never feel our fingers & toes by the time we leave, but we always have a blast! This year it was just Emilee & I, as Amanda didn't want to go out in the cold and she volunteered to keep Kalia home with her where it was warm.

Saturday I ended up having to work a few hours, then met up with Dan, Emilee & Kalia to watch the downtown Christmas parade. It's always a huge event....about 1 1/2 hours long! Again...it was FREEZING out there! It was actually a pretty nice day (high around 45), but for some reason they scheduled the parade for the evening time this year, and the temp had already begun to drop. Kalia was bundled up with about 3 layers on, so she stayed pretty warm. I joked that she was beginning to look like some of the pics we have of her while she was still in China....all bundled up like the Michelin man! At least she was warm....which was more than I could say for myself!

Sunday the girls & I drug out most of the decorations. I HATE decorating! I love having it decorated....just don't like doing it myself. Dan is in charge of all outdoor decorations, and we hope to have them up tomorrow. We also still have to set up the tree. Can't wait to see Kalia's face when we get that up & decorated! Christmas is so fun when viewing it thru the eyes of a young one!

We then stepped outside & watched our small town parade. It goes right by our house, and we finally got to see Amanda march. She's in band and has been marching since September, but we've never been able to watch her as she's always been in other towns & we haven't been able to get away & go with her. This was the best pic I could get of her.

Unfortunately they didn't play while going by the house. Kalia had just woken up so it took her a bit to get interested, but towards the end she was laughing at all the passers-by.

The weekend finally ended with the finale of Am@zing R@ce (yay......Megan & Cheyne won!!!!).

I'm sure the weekends will continue to be this busy until the end of the year. Come Janaury I'll be ready for a little slowing down, but I'll take it while it lasts! I LOVE this time of year!!!!