Christmas City of the North Parade

We hadn’t been to the Christmas City of the North Parade in years.  The last time we went Kidlets 2 and 3 were in a double stroller and Kidlet 4 hadn’t been born yet.  The thought of the huge crowds of people and all that bundling up kind of kept me away for years.  However, I realized last year that I would start having to go every year beginning this holiday season because I would have someone in marching band.  I probably will have someone in marching band for many years at this point.  (Hooray!).

Luck was with us on parade night this year, because the temperature was in the 30’s and there was no precipitation even though that had been forecasted.  We put on a few extra layers, grabbed a blanket to sit on and another to cover up with, and headed downtown after we dropped YaYa off at school.  The marching band needed to ride a bus from school to the parade.  Because we got there so early, we had no trouble finding a place to park, and the weather was nice enough that we didn’t mind sitting on the sidewalk to wait for the parade to start.

We found a great spot to watch the parade, with people in the crowd, but definitely not too many people, and most of the people around us were other families.  Best of all, volunteers from a local church came along and handed us free cups of hot cocoa!  (Way to outreach!)

YaYa’s band was near the end, and they sounded and looked great!  

YaYa plays saxophone in marching band because oboes really aren’t meant to be a marching instrument.  Mr. TOF was her biggest fan.  He loves the uniforms.  He loves the hats.  He loves the percussion.  He loves the marching cadence.  He loves all the instruments.  She’s famous in his eyes.

There were many other wonderful things in the parade as well, but marching bands remain our favorite.