Move over, Tiny Tim

We took Abigail to her first parade last night, the Rock Hill Holiday Parade. Let me tell you, for a small city, they put on a big parade. That thing took more than an hour to pass us by. There were the three high school bands as well as a rather sad Christian school band and loads of floats of varying quality put on by Parks and Rec, banks, realty companies and hospice. Now, nothing says Merry Christmas like a hospice float.

Abigail was incredibly excited about the whole thing and started off very enthusiastically wishing everything multiple Merry Christmases. It went from "Merry Cwistmas!!!" to "Merry Cwistmas!" to "Merry Cwistmas." to a snarly "Merry Cwist--mas." When the parade slowed down, as they always do, she even threw in a lovely "Get out of the way!" That elicited a little chat about being nice, and the "Merry Cwistmases" resumed a bit of their holiday spirit for a while, but just a while.

Being a small city, there were plenty of political types toodling down the road in small vehicles. The final county councilman to pass us by was rather late in the parade, closing in on what is normally bedtime, and the "Merry Cwistmas" had turned a bit fussy again, mixed with questions about the location of her blankie (at home, doh!). Well, when Mr. Councilman passed by, Brad tried to perk her up again by energetically telling her, "Say Merry Chrismas to the politician, Abigail!" So in all her Grinchiness, our darling let out "Merry Cwist--mas, politician!" in a rather "Go to hell" tone of voice. It was priceless.

But she did have a wonderful time. I think Santa was a letdown -- not a very impressive float -- but the marching bands were a big hit, especially the one band that got stuck in front of us for a few minutes and was actually playing most of the time. We picked a spot just before the turn on to Main Street, so most groups were saving their stuff for the big crowd, but not Northwestern High. They played for us lowly sidestreet folks, had a cool drum cadence and had the best music. Definitely win my vote for best in town. Please, no Rock Hill High hate mail.

This morning was the great tree excursion, which was much fun. We went out to a tree farm, even though we wound up getting a pre-cut Frasier fir, but we wanted the atmosphere. Free hot chocolate and marshmallows for just $1 to roast over the bonfire -- how great is that? Our little pyro in training loved the fire, calling it camping. She just sat on a stump holding a stick toward the fire, grinning.

Ah Christmas, what better way is there to keep a small child eternally entertained?