Spanish Fort Christmas parade

This morning was the Spanish Fort Christmas parade.

And Grace woke up bright and early ready to march.

Faith, however, was more than a little uncertain about all the festivities.

In fact, I held her and tried to dance a bit with her as the marching bands passed by playing Christmas carols. But Faith just buried her head in my shoulder and yelled, "No! No! No!"

Then Grace's dance group came by.  The older girls danced and marched as darling toy soldiers.  

Then we saw Grace!  And once again she was smiling, and waving, and shouting "Merry Christmas" to everyone she passed.

Next, Hope, Queenie, Faith, and I walked across the shopping mall to the center parking lot so we could watch as Grace passed by again.

And we caught a moon pie.  My girls adore moon pies.

That moon pie really transformed Faith's outlook.  She started to get pretty excited about all the goodies being passed her way.

 Then we saw Grace a second time just as cheerful as ever.

Faith was too occupied with a mouthful of candy to wave back.

After racing to the back side of the shopping mall we finally saw Grace pass by her third and final time.

Then I picked her up and we waved as Santa passed by on the firetruck.

What a great way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning.

And even my tiny little Scrooge enjoyed it.

Daphne Christmas Parade

Tonight was the Daphne Christmas parade.

All the young dancers - primarily 3 and 4 year olds - lined up holding a bar with a parent on each end.

This way the girls would stay together in a uniform line.  Very clever.  Grace was in the middle of the girls.

And she was very excited.  In fact, she was bouncing up and down waiting for the parade to start.

And she waved to everybody.  In fact, even at the end of the parade when there was no one left to wave to, Grace kept on waving and saying, "Merry Christmas!"

She was so darling!

And a real trooper.  I walked alongside the girls so I didn't see the rest of the parade, but I do know that it was loooonnnnnggggg.   In fact, when we arrived to line up I couldn't believe the sheer number of floats and people.  I didn't know that many people even lived in this area!  Apparently, the Christmas parade is much bigger than even Mardi Gras!  Our dance troupe was roughly in the middle of the lineup.  Our group didn't move for half an hour after the parade started.  That's how long it was.

But Grace enjoyed every minute of it singing along with the carols the band played.

And she waved and waved and waved.  She had a wonderful time marching but I had a wonderful time just watching her.  And I think Faith would have really enjoyed it, too, but she slept in the car with Queenie and missed the entire parade.  All 2 1/2 hours of it.  David caught up with me and walked the majority of the parade, too.  One thing is for sure, Grace should sleep well tonight.  And we get to do it all over again first thing in the morning.