Black Mountain Parade

So far, December has been quite a busy month for our family.  This week, we had sundaes with Santa, a spaghetti dinner fundraiser for a fellow BMP student, and a Black Mountain parade. That is on top of our usual activities of piano lessons, cub scout meeting, activity day, and Brownies.  Whew!  I need a vacation.

So lets start with the sundaes for Santa.  MMMMM!  Chaos.  Each year, the PTA at our school puts together a Christmas activity for the students and their families.  Last year it was the Polar express.  They had a large polar express train set in the cafeteria and the music teacher read the story aloud while all the students were wearing their pjs and enjoying some hot cocoa and cookies.  To handle the crowd, they separate in groups and have neat activities set up for the students elsewhere while waiting for their turn with Santa.  This year it was sundaes and all the fixin's along with cocoa.  My kids loved it!  And they were anxious for their visit with Santa. Ruby did not like the jolly old man, but Larry sure did.  I am not sure what they talked about, but I do know he thought long and hard about what he wanted.

Here are my kids crowded around jolly old ST Nick.

I wish we had a better picture, but the school had 

photographers on hand so Larry was off to the side

and our kids scattered before he could get the shot.

The spaghetti dinner was for a little girl in the head start program at our school.  Late this summer, she was diagnosed with stage IV neuroblastoma and bone marrow disease.  She is close to my heart because her big sis is one of my Brownies, the other Savannah.  And she visited our troop and all our activities with their mom.  I do not have pictures, but I think the night was a big success.  The school and the teachers arranged the fundraiser.  I just love the closeness of our community and their willingness to help out one of their own.

Now off to Saturday's parade.  I had to really gather the strength to attend.  I have been a little under the weather, but we were having 3 kids march in the parade.  Larry and I have lived here 2 years and this was the first time we attended.  Can I just say, it was soooo much fun.  People were lining up an hour ahead of time just to watch the parade.  It was quite a fun and well organized event.

Here is Miss Ruby and little Ethan waiting for the festivities.

Ruby got her nose painted by my fellow co-leader, Mary.

Our Brownies were marching as little reindeers.

No party is a party with out an Elvis impersonator.

I am not sure what he was promoting?  He was walking

with the chiropractor group.  I guess if you visit

their office, you can swing your hips like Elvis.

This picture was a cute moment.  Our fire department

has an antique fire truck that comes out for all the

local festivities.  It was in a past blog of our visit

to the fire house.  Anyways, it made to the red light

before it just chugged out.  Luckily the fire house

was just on the right and all those bystanders

were pushing it to the station.

Again, I love this town and the

love everyone shares.

Do you see the pale blue blob in the street?

That is my Ethan!  While bystanders were pushing

 the antique truck, Ethan took a moment to scoop

up all the candy in the road.

We were so ill prepared for this parade.

We did not know so much candy was going to be thrown out.

We were shoving it in our pockets till we ran out of room.

Luckily, Ethan and Ruby had hats on.

They made very good baggies.

Here is my Larry with the green hat.

The boy in front of him is William.  He goes to our 

church too.  I think they were having a blast.

In the chaos, we could not find Xander, but I 

see him now mushed up against the boy in the front.

Funny story though.  Eventually, he did jump off

the float.  All that candy being passed out and lying on 

the road was just too much temptation for him.

Ethan and I were slowly making our way back to the van while

Larry and Ruby were collecting children.  Ethan was

having great difficulties passing perfectly good candy.

On our way back, Xander passes me by on the sidewalk.

Talk about a heart attack.  He said he hopped off the 

float because he ran out of candy and it was boring.

No fancy floats in this parade, but everyone

was having such a good time.

Larry was having such a good time.

Onto the Brownies.  One of our girls parents

owns a pedicab.  Her dad volunteered to pedal it

in the parade for us.  The girls had so much fun and 

I think he did too.

Bad picture, but there are the 2 Savannah's

holding one of the banners our girls painted

at a previous meeting.  We have such a good

group of girls.  And for all you local

friends who read my blog, girl scout

cookie orders begin Jan 2.

Merry Christmas!

Ethan attacked the warhorse for a hug.

He was having such a great time.

Ho, Ho, Ho.  Off went Santa to Lake Tomahawk

for lighting of the luminaries and more festivities.

If I wasn't cold, tired, and ill, I would have loved to 

have attended.  Maybe next year.