What we did today....
Today the kids and I spent a good chunk of the afternoon outdoors at the 50th annual Chillicothe Santa Parade. I had no idea they've been having the parade for so long, and I almost missed it this year, too. I have the parade in my head as the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but the holiday fell late this year, so the parade ended up before.
We left norfacoflandra home to paint shelves in peace and went to the hardware store to buy new paintbrushes. Then we just left the car at the hardware store, since Chillicothe is the kind of town where you really can walk to just about anything, and walked the couple of blocks downtown to stake out a spot on the parade route.
My timing was off and we were a little earlier than I had planned, so we went inside at the corner coffee shop to get large cups of hot chocolate. I ran into several people from work and J saw a number of friends from Kindergarten.
I'm glad I brought the blanket from the car to sit on - it was pretty darned cold! A certain little girl refused to wear her mittens, but did allow me to pull her coat sleeves down over her hands at least. Sheesh!
The parade was pretty good. Chillicothe proper only has a population of 6000, yet the school district has three marching bands! The antique tractor club had a large showing of old Farmall and John Deere tractors, there were several horses, the usual array of emergency vehicles, several scout troops, and, of course, Santa Clause (riding on a 1930s fire truck).
After the parade, we joined the crowd at the downtown fire station for pictures with Santa...
R didn't even cry, although she didn't really want to sit with Santa. The photographer was great and we got a pretty good professional shot. I'll be keeping this guy in mind for future family photos.
Both kids had had a little too much (cold, excitement, candy, fresh air) and R fell asleep on the way home - a 10 minute drive. She had a cozy nap to warm up and was quite willing to have bath and bed right after dinner.
Now: the quiet of the house after the kids have gon to bed. Aaaaaahhhhhh...
We left norfacoflandra home to paint shelves in peace and went to the hardware store to buy new paintbrushes. Then we just left the car at the hardware store, since Chillicothe is the kind of town where you really can walk to just about anything, and walked the couple of blocks downtown to stake out a spot on the parade route.
My timing was off and we were a little earlier than I had planned, so we went inside at the corner coffee shop to get large cups of hot chocolate. I ran into several people from work and J saw a number of friends from Kindergarten.
I'm glad I brought the blanket from the car to sit on - it was pretty darned cold! A certain little girl refused to wear her mittens, but did allow me to pull her coat sleeves down over her hands at least. Sheesh!
The parade was pretty good. Chillicothe proper only has a population of 6000, yet the school district has three marching bands! The antique tractor club had a large showing of old Farmall and John Deere tractors, there were several horses, the usual array of emergency vehicles, several scout troops, and, of course, Santa Clause (riding on a 1930s fire truck).
After the parade, we joined the crowd at the downtown fire station for pictures with Santa...
R didn't even cry, although she didn't really want to sit with Santa. The photographer was great and we got a pretty good professional shot. I'll be keeping this guy in mind for future family photos.
Both kids had had a little too much (cold, excitement, candy, fresh air) and R fell asleep on the way home - a 10 minute drive. She had a cozy nap to warm up and was quite willing to have bath and bed right after dinner.
Now: the quiet of the house after the kids have gon to bed. Aaaaaahhhhhh...