home is where my husband is stationed: A Northern Christmas

Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell, Jingle Bell Rock. What a magical time of year to spend in the North! Having snow on the ground with temperatures reaching in the 20's everyday (if not colder) makes for a different kind of Christmas experience. I actually get to wear cold weather gear in December. Imagine that!

Tyler and I went downtown for the Tree lighting extravaganza. The town had their tree lighting ceremony in Main Street Square. People were everywhere. Santa was taking orders. Skaters were twirling or speeding by on the ice rink. Parade goers were set up on the sidewalks. Carolers were singing and Tyler and I were enjoying the cold.

It's Santa!

Let there be light.

Super stoked for Christmas season.

The Parade of Lights was a neat parade, but I have to say it was a disappointment. No beads or candy were thrown. In fact, nothing was thrown. The people on the floats just waved. It was a bit awkward. Do we wave back??? Do we just smile??? Are we supposed to throw something to them? Who knows!

Every float was filled with lights. Tyler and I got a bit too cold and wanted to enjoy the parade from indoors. We decided to watch the parade from inside Botticelli's, a delicious Italian restaurant.


The view of the parade from inside Botticelli's.

I have quickly become obsessed with the snow. It has snowed here pretty frequently and I just love the way it looks falling from the heavens. My students are pretty excited too. Plus Billie goes crazy when the ground is covered. I keep getting hit by snowballs. I'm always unsuspecting. Tyler likes to catch me off guard...throwing snowballs at me while I'm doing laundry, watching tv...you know, just hanging out inside! He makes such a mess! It's pretty funny. I'll see if I'm still laughing come January.

Snow can't stop the hubby from grillin!

Our playground covered in snow is always a pretty sight unless of course I have outside recess duty on a snow day. It's weird telling kids to stop eating the snow. Brr!

Geez! The wind chill makes it feel like 10 below. I'm cold!!!

Our babies are all grown up.

It wouldn't be a southern household if we don't enjoy a little banana's foster from time to time.

Our baby tree!

My CCD class made these advent wreaths. I had to figure out how to make a wreath without using fire. No one wants to let 1st graders play with fire! No one!

I attended an Enlisted Spouses Christmas meeting where we played games and exchanged gifts. The below picture was part of a game where you had to arrange 5 boxes in order of how many jingle bells you suspected were in the box. I won! However, that's not the reason I'm including this picture. When I was a kid, Santa decided to use numbers to designate presents to my siblings and I. This helped us not recognize Santa's handwriting. I was #2 being that I was the 2nd child born. When I saw these boxes numbered 1-5, I began to cry. Every Christmas morning, we'd find presents scattered around the floor with different numbers on them. Seeing these boxes with numbers on them made me miss home even more.