The Santa Claus Parade

Today was the Santa Claus Parade here in the Hammer. Every year I think it's far too early to think about Christmas in mid-November, but by the end of the parade I've totally got the "holiday spirit". This year the temperature dropped several degrees during the course of the parade, and the snow started to fall - our first real snow of the season! Very festive.

Drinking hot chocolate while waiting for the parade to start!

One of several local dance troupes

Spiderman! Very important when you have 3 boys age 10 and under in tow :)
Lots of marching bands....

A Chinese Dragon (I just love those things!)

Clydesdales - very important! It's not a parade without some decent horses :)

Finally - the Big Guy himself!

By the time Santa made his appearance, my hands and feet were pretty well numb. Thankfully, my backside did not suffer the same fate as we are now smart enough to bring our Therm-a-rests along whenever we're going to be sitting on cold, hard ground. They work like a charm! A big thermos full of hot chocolate also helps to stave off the cold (well, provided you get some before the kids drink it all...)

Of course, the kids were so busy scrambling after goodies being tossed by parade participants that they barely had time to feel cold. Thank goodness I had an extra shopping bag on me! We dragged home 21 mini candy canes, 7 (full size) packs of gum, a couple of full-size chocolate bars, 1 bag of chips, 7 lollipops, 1 orange, 2 toothbrushes, 3 pieces of sidewalk chalk, a pencil, a CFL lightbulb, 2 balloons, and a coupon for 1 free admission to the local drive-in movies. That's not even counting all the stuff they tucked away during the parade!

It was a lot of fun, but I was definitely happy to come home and thaw out. Good thing I'm in a festive mood now, we're doing Christmas shopping tomorrow...