Tis the season...

The Schwangstons are in now full holiday swing.  Singing carols, finding our Elfie from "Elf on the Shelf", redistributing ornaments everyday.

It.
Is.
On.

To take it to another level, we decided to check out the Chapel Hill Christmas Parade this past Saturday.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to ride bikes up to the parade since it was starting ~2miles from our house.  The unmentioned part is one of those miles is uphill - the "hill that is Chapel Hill".  I haven't really been riding much since our home purchase, but Ms. Schwangston hasn't pedaled a bike since, well, it has been a while.  So long that Carter doubted that she could.  That was all the motivation required.

Upon reaching the "summit," we discovered that the parade had already kicked off. Not wanting to miss it, I persuaded my reluctant bride to follow us through the parade to get out front so we could see everything.  It was similar to salmon swimming upstream or like the "band is on the field" Cal/Stanford play, except that we were just looking for a good spot ahead of the parade, not the end zone.  After weaving through a high school dance team, some cub scouts, and the band, we found a prime spot for parade watchin'.

Carter loves a parade and asked if it would have those big balloons (Macy's).  I explained that it wasn't a big parade like that, but it would have some cool stuff. The parade had most of the go to local attractions: the aforementioned Marching Band, Dance Teams, Cub Scouts, Fire trucks, Santa, and even karate kicking kiddos.  It also delivered on Owen's only wish: balloons.  This kid loves balloons almost as much as milk.  So everyone was excited.  One thing we weren't expecting was CANDY.  It was crazy.  Every single float, marching group, and all those in-between were handing out candy by the fistfuls.  We had a non-competitive spot which enabled the boys to have it all to themselves.  It was like a  reverse Halloween - we just sat there and the treats came to us.  By the time Santa completed the parade, we had inherited a large grocery bag full of candy and two new toothbrushes (thanks to the Dentist marching in the parade).

After enjoying a few treats and pedaling home, we got some rest and readied ourselves for the next big event of our Christmas Saturday: The Christmas Pageant (at our church).  Carter had signed up for a role as a shepherd, and we were excited to see all of the kiddos in an "unrehearsed" play.

Carter was super excited about his costume, and eager to get in on the play asking many times before his part, "can I go up now?".  Finally he had his call and as the smallest of the three shepherds, he managed to contribute a solid performance of falling asleep and then waking up to the angel's call.  Then he took a spot so close to Mary, I would have been a little nervous if I was Joseph.

Another jammed weekend of Christmas activity and I'm not sure how we'll keep this going these next few weeks, but we are definitely ready for a long winters nap.

Thanks for reading...Bill