Christmas parade

Saturday evening, we went to the annual Siloam Springs Christmas parade with the Franco family and Amanda, who was visiting from her new home in Connecticut. Before walking downtown for the parade, we all met at our house for dinner. I made turkey n' dumplings (just like my mom always made it with chicken, which seems to be the same idea to the way it's made here) and Orangette's whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. It was a good meal for the cold night.

And cold it was. We bundled up and walked down the hill to watch the parade. River was fascinated by all of the lights and commotion.   He has been wearing his helmet since Thursday, and it's going really well. It doesn't seem to bother him except when I take it off and put it back on. So far, I've been asked if he's epileptic, if he has had brain surgery, and if he's been in an accident... And we get lots of quizzical looks. Gabe says it looks like a bowling ball. I think it's cute, and River gets a huge grin when he sees himself in the mirror. 

 Liam's favorite part of the parade was all of the candy thrown at him. And the big trucks. 
Because in our town, anyone owning a large truck/tractor/buggy gets in on the action. Including all of the local emergency vehicles. It was a long parade.

 And it wouldn't be a parade without the bands from all of the area schools. Liam thought they were great. River thought they were loud.

 
The biggest surprise this year were all of the costumes: a snowman, tin soldiers, the McDonalds crew, two bees from 2 B's auto sales, and a few of these really creepy gingerbread men.

When it was all said and done, we bundled Liam and Sage back into the wagon and walked back up the hill. 

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It wouldn't be Christmas without the parade, but I am still having a hard time getting into the mood of the season.

I'm not even listening to Christmas music right now.

Linda, my sister, admitted herself to drug rehab last week. It is encouraging, sad, and complicated all at the same time. It wasn't a big shock, but still it makes my heart heavy.

We are slowly trickling out the holiday decorations, and plan to get a tree this coming weekend.   

Liam is thrilled with everything glowing and sparkly. I need to look at the holiday through his eyes. It's not a bad perspective.

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