December 1--Parade and Town Hall Lighting

There is a good chance that I won't be faithful in blogging consistently for each of our 24 days of family fun advent activities (just look how long it was between posts after I climbed back on the blogging horse!).  However, I hope to try...if nothing else for something to look back on.  The days are flying by...and honestly, in the midst of them, they are hard and exhausting, and sad but true, often I am too overwhelmed to really savor them like I know I should. My blog has always been a place for me to remind myself of the heaps of "good"...like the title, the "blessings all mine".  It is not that I want to pretend that there aren't really hard hours and days and seasons...there are...it is not that I want to plaster on a smile and not be real....it is that I want to be able to smile...now, in the midst of the hard...and blogging does just that for me.

That brings us to December 1, 2012...kicking off our month of fun with a big one...the town parade and tree/town hall lighting.  Our fab friends came over for dinner first...gotta love that they came bearing a big ole' pot of white chicken chili for us adults (the silly kiddos scarfed down some homemade pigs in a blanket ala moi).  We have a particularly prime location for parades, etc...as we don't have to drive...just a nice walk down the street!

It was a fabulous night...I think most all of us adults ended up sans coats before the night was over...who could expect upper 50s for a parade on December 1....unseasonably warm, just like the fourth of July parade!

 CANDY!

 Maybe it is the "lake-goer" in me, but I liked this simple but fun "float"...I mean, you might as well just keep the boat on the trailer and deck it up!

 These people had bubble machines built into the float...and TONS of LED lights...so fun!

 Luke and mama

 Here comes Santa and Mrs. Claus....they don't bring the presents at our house, as we choose to focus away from that, BUT really, it is Santa, and how fun is that for any little kiddos, even the ones who just think of him as a fun red bearded dude in a red suit. :)

 Waiting for the tree and town hall lighting

 Someone charmed the crowd and wandered until mama got tired of chasing him down and confined him with a sucker...he wasn't too sad about the deal :)

 Jilly, daddy, and Kate...counting down for the lighting of the tree

 Ta-Da!  We had front row seats

 Miss Carrie and Rilla

 Family sans mama :)

 Look, here I am...I do exist AND I actually let them take a pic of me AND posted it on the blog

 Miss Elizabeth is getting way too big, way too quickly!

Daddy and Luke :)