Please people, don't rain on my parade!!

We have missed the Raleigh Christmas Parade every year. Usually due to Adam's work schedule. This year we vowed to go to every single Christmas influenced event we could handle.

First came the Raleigh Christmas Parade. It was actually quite impressive. Not that Raleigh's a small town or anything, but I wasn't expecting some of the big floats and giant balloons they had. I also wasn't expecting it to last 2 hours! We headed out there as our new little family of 4. It was approximately 12 degrees that morning but did warm up over the, agian, 2 hours that we were there. Our friend Jay met us there with his little gir,l and Harper's idol, Grace. We got there about an hour before it started and still missed out on the front row. We were lucky enough to camp out right behind a super nice family who squeezed over and let our little ones (and husbands) sit on the curb. The kids had a great time, and as I said before, Raleigh really put on a fantastic show! We even got to see our own "Idol" Scotty.








Now, on to the next event. We all went to the tree lighting up at North Hills. We met a bunch of friends up there and their kids. The tree lighting ceremony was really cute. They had us all singing Christmas carols and then Santa himself made an appearance to help light the tree. Despite being totally starstruck, the highlight of the night was when Santa pointed directly to Harper and waved. With a look of sheer terror, she gave him a half staff, slow motion wave back.






The following week we spent an afternoon in Wake Forest for their own town parade. Again, I was not expecting too much and was very wrong, but we stayed from beginning to end. Harper was just as impressed but much more active during this one. She made sure she didn't miss out on anyone walking by handing out goodies.







And last but not least we rounded out our Holiday event calender with a breakfast with Santa! This was the coolest thing! My parent's country club hosted a breakfast for all the members and their families, that ended with a visit from Santa. It was a fun filled morning where we learned a new trick, decorated gingerbread houses that were displayed in the clubhouse throughout the holidays, and anyone who wanted to got to sit on Santa's lap and profess their every desire. Harper's was for a Princess (not a doll, but the real thing).
We ended the afternoon at a friend's house for a cookie exchange where Stratton got to formally meet his first best friend, James :)