Christmas things like parades, Grand Illumination, and Advent

One of the things I love about this town is that there is so much to do related to Christmas in the month of December. The first weekend of the month was definitely the most packed for us. We made our first visit to Christmas Town, the town's Christmas parade was on Saturday morning, and then Grand Illumination was Sunday evening. Saturday morning we headed downtown to watch the parade and see how Eleanor would react. She spent the whole hour waving at people and dogs walking in the parade and bouncing, clapping, and dancing when floats had music or marching bands passed by. It was absolutely adorable. Eleanor's particular favorite was when a group of Jazzercise dancers came by and performed a routine in front of us.

ParadeClapping from Katie Stratton on Vimeo.

Sunday evening was Grand Illumination. Colonial Williamsburg hosts fireworks from the Governor's Palace, the Capitol, and the armory. Candles in all the windows of the homes are lit and there are baskets of burning wood by which to warm yourselves. Chris and I brought hot chocolate down with us and Eleanor was fairly mesmerized by it all.

We decorated our tree and house that weekend, I made apple pie (I know it's a little more of a fall thing, but we had everything for it so we figured we might as well), and we watched Christmas movies. We've also been doing advent calendars with Eleanor this year. She got an advent calendar last year from my Aunt Holly that she absolutely loves. She needs some help getting the pieces to stick and clearly has no idea where they would logically be placed as evidenced by the fact that we have a flying camel, but she is enjoying it anyway.

We did happen to pick up a chocolate advent calendar for her this year, too. We have to hide that one on top of the fridge because unlike the other calendar that I can let her play with multiple times throughout the day, she can't eat all the chocolate at one time. She likes that one, too.

Advent from Katie Stratton on Vimeo.