Carriage Parade

Historic Lebanon, Ohio holds an annual horse-drawn carriage Christmas parade. It's always held the first Saturday in December. We didn't know a whole lot more than that when we made the decision to go visit Lebanon and catch the evening parade. (There's also an afternoon parade.)

Uncle Josh, Aunt Angie and the boys were in town, and we bundled up, braved the snowy roads, and drove over to Lebanon. Arriving about an hour early, we, of course, found the food!

All the local shops and businesses were open along the main downtown area, and there was every type of food vendor there that you could think of. I was amazed at how crowded it was considering the bitter cold (temperatures in the teens).

Adam warming up in the jam shop.

We could tell the other spectators had previous experience preparing parade-viewing plans -- with chairs set along the route to reserve their place, plenty of blankets, tarps to cover the snowy curbs and snacks and hot chocolate. That may be us, too, some year, but this year we were just checking everything out.

We found a spot along a local market to await and watch the parade. There were all shapes and sizes of carts and wagons (and horses!). Most were just decorated with lights but some had Santa or the Grinch or reindeer ears on the horses.

The Grinch and Cindy Lou-Who

This one had the Grinch in jail.

My favorites were the clydesdale horses, especially with a full 6 horses reined together with bells to pull the wagons, but Adam loved the miniature horses prancing down the roads.

While I loved the night parade with all the carriages lit up with Christmas lights, I think next time I'd like to check out the afternoon parade. Just watching this slideshow below shows all the detailed costumes and themes that we missed in the dark.

Combined with family and Christmas shopping, this was a great way to cap off a fun-filled holiday weekend. Maybe this will become an annual tradition for us, too!

Adam's School Christmas Program

I was so excited to hear that Adam's school puts on a little Christmas program. I was impressed at how organized and involved the evening was planned. His and another class performed a few carols, and after the concert the kids shared holiday cookies and milk, played holiday games, and made an ornament.

I had some hints as to what we'd be hearing since Adam has been randomly start singing Christmas carols around the house. I was, however, surprised by his dance moves.

I love how they incorporated the carols into his class curriculum -- Feliz Navidad for his Spanish class.

The performance was held in a different classroom and Adam was distracted by all the new toys he could see to his right.

This was my favorite, We Wish You a Merry Christmas with sign language, another part of his curriculum.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town made me laugh, because over the past couple weeks, whenever Adam would throw a fit, he would cross his arms over his chest (with much exaggeration) and "pout". I didn't make the connection between this action and the song until I saw his performance.

Afterwards Jolly ol' Santa came for a visit. Adam told him he wanted a bouncy house...

... a "big" bouncy house. (Thanks, Christie!)

A festive way to kick off the Christmas season!

So Long, Autumn

Thank you for bearing with me through all these November posts. I'm excited to start tell you about all our December activities but just couldn't skip over a great November. I promise, December/Christmas posts to come next!

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It throws me off when Thanksgiving is so late in the month because I'm not over that holiday before I'm thrust into December so quickly. I'm not quite prepared to part with Autumn yet, but Mother Nature is moving on. We've already had several inches of snow so we are definitely into winter now!

But autumn is my favorite time of year, and I usually fill up my camera with picture of bright orange and yellow trees. Somehow it all got away from me this year, and right near the end of the season I hurriedly snapped this picture from my car window because I knew in a matter of days it would all be over.

One of our annual traditions that I love is visiting a local pumpkin patch. While we didn't make it to our favorite farm this year, we did visit one in Kentucky instead that still had the farm animals, petting zoo, playground and hay ride.

I love all the colors and the warm sunshine and the sweater weather, and I'm still mourning the passing of Autumn but I'm ready to be touched by the Christmas spirit. There's a least that to look forward to.

Thanksgiving 2014

Sometimes pictures tell the store better than words. I hope your Thanksgiving was filled with as many blessings as ours, and your table was surrounded by family and friends that you love most.

Happy Thanksgiving!

1 The view from my parent's house

2 Our bountiful dinner table

3 Thanksgiving in their new so-called "holiday room"

4-5 Sharing food and love around the table

6 Sam's first table food Thanksgiving

7 Playing the 'Heads Up' app -- so fun

Favorite Family

For the last two years, one of our favorite families has come up from Florida to spend the holidays with us. Their two little ones are similar ages to my and my sister's kiddos, which makes it so fun. We spent one day at the Newport Aquarium, followed by lunch at one of our favorites, Tom & Chee.

We took them to see the local sights.

When was the last time you saw one of these?

And showed them what was left of Autumn.

But mostly, we just wanted to play together and watch these kiddos get to know one another, because they're going to be seeing a lot of each other in the years to come.

I'm already planning a trip to see this family again in the spring. 

I just can't wait until another Thanksgiving!

A Very Hungry Caterpillar Party

Have you ever read or heard of The Very Hungry Caterpillar? It's one of my favorite books to read with the boys. If you haven't, and if you have little ones, check it out from your local library or at least preview it on youtube.

I decided to make this Sam's birthday theme, feeling like I needed to go a bit "all out" for his first birthday since I had done so for Adam's first party.

Oh, the food options!

On Monday he ate through one apple, but he was still hungry. Apples!

On Tuesday he ate through two pears, but he was still hungry. Pears!

We served most of the foods the caterpillar ate, which is great because they are great snacks for kids, too -- apples, pears, (plums are out of season in November, if you didn't know, so we substituted red grapes), strawberries and oranges, plus pickles, Swiss cheese, salami, cupcakes (muffins) and watermelon.

While I thought food prep would be super easy, I did not take into account the time-consuming task of punching holes into each food, as they appear in the book. Thanks to all the helpers who helped poke holes and to Kim for icing the caterpillar cupcake cake!

Now that we live close to families, parties are not small gathering, and we had a house full of Sam's aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, godparents and out of town friends. The cold November weather kept us indoors, but a million thanks to Christie for letting us use her bouncy house in the basement!

Sam is so laid back he just went with the flow as all his cousins and friends ran all around. He didn't even mind when his brother and cousins opened his gifts for him. Give the boy a bottle and all is right in the world!

Happy Birthday, Sam!

Oh, and I almost forgot! The delicious party favors were made by the super awesome and talented Cookie Chick! Like her on Facebook, or better yet, order a dozen from her! She ships anywhere!