The most wonderful time of the year

This weekend was jam-packed with holiday cheer.

Saturday morning, we bundled up and drove to Old Town Manassas for its annual Christmas parade. This was our first viewing of the parade, and even though it was quite possibly the longest parade EVER and the coldest day of the year, it was really fun! Emilia’s favorite parade participants were of the four-legged variety – specifically the doggies and horsies, including the Budweiser Clydesdales. There were lots of marching bands and holiday tunes. Between Emilia dancing along and changing hats (first her doggie hat, then daddy’s hat, then an elf hat they were giving to the crowd), we had our own little sideshow going to entertain the people around us. Here are Emilia’s various parade-viewing ensembles:
The highlight of every Christmas parade is of course the finale when Santa appears. But, because we could no longer feel our faces and it was pushing lunchtime for Emilia, we resigned ourselves to passing on Old St. Nick. We made our way back to our car, which was parked at the start of the parade. Who did we find waiting there for his turn in the parade but the Big Red Man himself (and I’m not talking about Eric )!?! He was so friendly and patient – a true jolly St. Nick. However, Emilia wasn’t so sure at first. Here’s her immediate reaction:
After Santa turned on the charm, Emilia finally warmed up to him:
All in all, she had a fantastic time at her first Christmas parade. So much so that this was the reaction when we finally had to leave the horsies behind - real tears!:
We ended our weekend by meeting up with our friends for dinner and going back to Manassas for the Bull Run Festival of Lights. You drive in your car through the park and view elaborate light displays. I think Emilia was a little overwhelmed, but every once in a while she would pipe up and announce something she recognized: “tree!” “neigh!” (for horsies). At the end of the tour, we braved the 20-degree, windy weather to check out the festival's carnival. Emilia and Nay Nay (Nathan) got to go on two rides before we were all going to freeze to death. Here they are riding a school bus ride. How cute are they?!?
We headed back to the Vaughans’ house just in time to meet up with Santa again, this time on a South Riding fire engine. Emilia is still not sold on this Santa guy (see the pout below), so we’ll have to keep trying.
In the midst of all of that, we finished our Christmas cards, put up the outside lights, made some progress on Christmas shopping, and watched a holiday favorite, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I think it’s safe to say that the holiday season is in full swing in our house!