Candy, candy everywhere and all the children didn't sleep.

We went to two Christmas parades last Saturday. The weather was so, so beautiful which made the decision to actually go see the parades very easy. Even though it was nice outside, I put this hat on Nora. It was just too cute to pass up and since it was officially December I thought I could get away with it.

At the first parade we got a decent/normal amount of candy. Still too much in my opinion but not really a terrible amount. None of that really matters anyway because I let them eat their fill that first day and then threw the rest away or gave it away.

Here's Elaina with her empty bag waiting for the parade to start. She couldn't take her eyes off the scrolling bank marquee to look at the camera so her smile is a little distracted.

It was a good parade and really fun family time, but we had to move on because Aunt Sarah and Uncle Brad had a housewarming that afternoon and then that evening we were going to go to the Charleston parade.

 

 

 

Let me tell you something. This was the best parade I have ever been to and I've been to a lot of parades in my thirty-one years. It basically had the same participants that the Lavaca parade had (I guess these people just do a parade circuit) but the thing that made this parade AMAZING was the group of little people that I watched it with.

Audrey and Elaina VERY excited and walking quickly to stake their spot on the best corner.

Let me set the scene for you. This was the first parade that Audrey had been to in years and probably the first one that she will remember. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself. This of course, rubbed off on the other kids so the anticipation level was quite high. We parked ourselves on the corner where the parade started from and waited and waited and waited.

You know how pretty much everyone at a parade just stands there and watches and the youngsters run around gathering candy but no one really says anything? Well, we were the opposite of that, except for the watching the kids part. From the very first cop car to the very last fire truck, those kids waved and screamed and cheered and whistled as if their lives depended on it and if the person that was in front of us had their name written somewhere on their float, the kids yelled "Hello" and said their name nice and loud and waved so hard I'm suprised their arms didn't fall off. It was hilarious. Since we were at the beginning of the parade, when all the participants still had a lot of candy, and since the kids were so good at showing their enthusiasm, they RACKED UP the candy. The poor people on the other side of the street were partially ignored and while I felt bad for them, I was laughing so hard at our little group of cheerleaders and they were working so hard at being enthusiastic that I felt they were earning every single piece of candy thrown their way. I hope we started a trend because parades would be so much more fun if everyone cheered the way these kids did. It was great.