Conifer Christmas Parade!

I LOVE Christmas time.  I have seriously been waiting for December to get here for .....well.....roughly 3 months.  Not only because it is Christmas month, but because as of December 6th, I am 12 weeks.  Bye Bye first trimester. WHOO HOO.  No, I still feel yucky, but it is a milestone anyone who has ever had a baby understands is BIG.  Yeah for December!

We brought in the Christmas month in true Christmas fashion with the 30th annual Conifer Christmas Parade.    I simply love the town of Conifer.

I grew up there, my old church is still there and so many of the people from my childhood are there.  When Mema and Papa suggested it, we couldn't resist taking part.  We planned on it starting at 12 noon and hopefully finishing before we had a complete toddler melt down.  Once we got up the mountain, though, we discovered that the parade didn't even start until 1:30.  Oh dear.  Well, we decided to chance it on the hope that the stimulation and promise of horses would assuage Miss Lily.  Thank the Lord for Mema.  She can make life happy for even the most tired of toddlers.  By the time the parade was started, Lily had a cookie in each hand and was smiling like no other.

We saw over 40 floats including, reindeer, music, presents, dancers, old cars, nativities, donkeys, dogs and countless BIG trucks.

Camp IdRaHaJe-Went every summer as a kid!

My old church- Represent!

This Grandma got run over by a reindeer!

Lily was mesmerized the entire time and let me tell you, the candy haul that my daughter pulled in would rival any trick or treating session.......hands down.  WOW, I am pretty sure we have enough sugar in our house to allow her to have one piece every day until next Christmas.  No kidding.  Lily loves fire trucks right now, and the final float of the parade was a big yellow fire truck carrying none other than Old St. Nick and Mrs. Clause.

By the end of the parade she was completely glassy eyed and a little zombie-ish. Oh the girly was tired.    We pulled her back to the car and quickly loaded her up to take her home.  She made it down the winding mountain road before she crashed, HARD.

30 minutes later we made it home.  Unfortunately, it was 4PM by then and we just couldn't let her sleep any more.  Calamity, calamity.  There is really some wisdom behind the "don't wake a sleeping baby" theory.

We took her to the grocery store, then set up our Christmas tree, played, made a Lily taco, ate dinner and promptly at 6 put her to bed.  What a day she had!

For those of you who have anxiously been awaiting a "belly" picture, here is the first.

Honestly, I think I still just look chubby, but its baby chub so it counts.  Today was a special day and I thought it a perfect time to take the first picture.

We might just have to make the parade a yearly tradition.  Lily loved it and it was such a great way to ring in the Christmas season.