A holiday tradition that our family always enjoys is going to The Southlands Mall for their Christmas Parade and Tree Lighting Ceremony. We have gone every year since Nolan was born, besides last year for some reason- we can't remember, and have weathered the always FREEZING temps to make special memories with the boys. This year my Mom was here, so she got the pleasure of freezing along with us.
We all bundled up, grabbed a quick dinner at Chipotle, and then headed out to find a spot along Main Street for the parade.
We ended up having to wait for about 20 cold minutes. The kids got a bit whiny, but were troopers. As soon as the parade started they had so much fun!
The Southlands Mall is in my school's community. So I ran into a lot of families and people that I know from Antelope. My teaching friend Kirst took this picture of our fam. Too bad Heathy wouldn't look for the photo.
The Eaglecrest marching band kicked off the parade. They had fun Christmas lights pinned onto their costumes.
Of course our boys LOVED all of the "blow ups". I can't wait to see their homes one day- I'm sure they will look like Clark Griswold's!
They had fun waving at and high-fiving everybody that came by.
Except for the Grinch...they didn't want to wave to him because they say "he's a bad guy".
Of course they loved any animals they saw.
And this juggling guy was a BIG hit! One of Nolan's favorites.
Our Antelope Ridge Marching Band played their bucket drums and recorders and waved their flags! It was their first time marching in this parade and they did such a good job. It was fun cheering for some of my past students as they came by.
The boys called and called for Mr. Penguin to come by and he FINALLY did!
And then came the big event...Santa's arrival.
He always comes in on an old fire truck.
Nolan asked if he was the REAL Santa. Which of course we said, YES. And his face LIT UP! He and Heath were both very happy to see him! They will get to visit Santa at Mark's work party next weekend. So they've been busily circling wish items from their Target catalog ever since.
The parade was about 30 minutes and then we walked over and got some free popcorn and watched Santa light the tree. They always get a very tall, real, Colorado tree. So it's scrawny, but full of lights and very bright. Nolan shouted out random crazy things in excitement when he first saw it lit. But we were all so cold that literally the second it was lit we turned around and headed back to the car to thaw out.
It was a freezing fun evening that helped get us right into the Christmas spirit!
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