Kicking off Christmas!

I try very hard to separate the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday seasons, in addition to not letting Jake and Mari's end of November birthdays get lost in the mix. At our house you won't see Christmas decor until the weekend of the Reed's Christmas Parade/Mid-Way Marina Lighting of the Boats and fireworks. It is normally the first Saturday in December and we spend a packed day going and kicking off the Christmas Season and then go home and then pick up a tree on the way home (which we decorate the next afternoon after church). Here we are at Reed's Annual Christmas Parade, where it was freezing. We go stand out front of our church which is along the parade route and that way we can take the kids in for bathroom/cookie/hot chocolate breaks. Jake preferred to stay in his chair unless they were throwing candy.

Jake and his stash of parade candy.

Mari is constantly in motion as you can see.

She loved dancing to the music the bands played.

This year, FMC technologies (where James and my father work) decided to do a family friendly Christmas party during the day instead of an adults only one at night (I am sure it was cheaper too). So we went by there after the parade for a picture with Santa (above) and to make some arts and crafts. They also had cookies and Christmas movies which we stayed for until Mari started getting sleepy.

James helps the kids with their crafts, while I take pictures.

Mari bossing her Daddy around and Jake proudly displaying some MORE candy that FMC Santa gave him.

After this we went home and took naps ate some non-candy food sources and headed to Fulton for the Mid-Way Marina Lighting of the boats and fireworks.

We see another Santa at the Marina, but once again Mari is not so sure...

The boats...

My parents, James, Jake and Mari standing inside the giant light tree.

Then we went to Carrie's Coffee House (not pictured as I was too tired, my mom has some pictures of the event on her blog) and then went home.

The next evening we decorated the tree. Whew, it was enough to wear me out! Also not pictured is a trip to cotton plant that we took (near New Albany). It is a display of lights and inflatable that you can walk through and I just didn't get any good pictures of it this year (although I have in years past if you look in the archives).