Santa Claus Parade

For the first time since I’ve lived in the Ottawa area, I attended a Santa Claus Parade. And for the first time in a long time, I’ve felt excited about Christmas.

Now, before anyone says anything, yes, I was working today. But I took a long, yet early, lunch, and was not away from my trust laptop for more than a couple of hours. Which is fine, the last email I got was from 2am. So it’s all good. 🙂

We gathered the troops over facebook and finally came to a decision of where to park and stand. It was at the local arena and was a major turning point in the parade. By turning point I really mean it was a place they had to turn. It didn’t suddenly make it better.

Tara and I were the first to show. Of course we brought Liam and bundled him up really well. He seemed very content in the stroller and was behaving himself really well. Both Jim and Scotts family showed up right around the same time. Jim was sporting his Movember do, and it was turning out really well. Yes, he looked like a stalker, but that’s ok. For now.

We chatted, had our coffee and whatnot, and it seemed somehow appropriate that the guys were separated from the women folk. Like you see in the movies 🙂

The parade got underway and we were, actually, kinda thrilled. It was a big thing for Tara and I. We both remember going to these kinds of things when we were kids, and now that we have a child of our own, it’s one of those experiences that you pass down and it feels really good.

Sure, it’s a smallish town so the floats aren’t huge or expensive, but it’s all local. The Scouts were there, the local churches, local business, the football teams. That kind of thing. And yea, the Mayor and local MP were paraded around too.

Then the big man himself showed up. On the top of a fire truck, with the loudest speakers of the bunch. I remember this mall Santa being really good with Liam last year, and, if it’s the same guy, we’ll go back this year. There was talk of taking all the kids to do one big group shot. That would be pretty cool 🙂

Afterwards, some warming up and coffee. It was good to chat with everyone and the kids were doing really well. By the time we got home Liam was done for and he slept nearly for three hours.

These are the kinds of moments and experiences that stay with you forever. And to see the world anew through a child’s eyes is pretty darn cool.

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