It's beginning to look a lot like ...

Sawyer got his first real taste of Christmas in the past week. This technically isn't his first Christmas, but he hadn't yet come out of his cocoon for most of the Christmas decorating and events last year.

On Friday, we bundled him up in about 4 layers and headed downtown for the Festival of Lights, which Greensboro hosts on the first Friday of December. A giant tree is lit, carols are sung, musicians are set up along Elm Street and merchants stay open late and serve cider and hot chocolate. You might catch a glimpse of Mr. or Mrs. Claus. You'll see dogs dressed up in antlers and jingle bells. This year they even had fake snow blowing.

It was frigidly cold, but we really wanted to go. Unfortunately, Sawyer hit his cranky hour right as we were ready to leave. We got lucky with a close parking space, and we put Sawyer in our backpack carrier that he was finally big enough to try. I'm not sure if he was stunned by the cold or afraid to fall off Daddy's back, but he was quiet as a mouse the whole night. All you could see was his pink face, and he just took everything in. I'm not sure he noticed most of what was going on, but we had fun kicking off the holiday season.





The next day was the Greensboro holiday parade. I had to bow out of the parade last year because I was ready to pop, so I was excited to help wrangle the N&R's giant balloon again this year.

Mom, Dad, Ray and Sawyer were planning to go to the parade to watch. It was bitterly cold again, and to everyone's amazement, it started snowing. We saw the first tiny flakes just before noon, when the parade was set to start, and thought that's all we'd see. But it started pouring flakes the size of cotton balls. It was absolutely beautiful and magical at first.

Ray texted me that the family was heading home. We stood with our balloon, waiting our turn, and watched many of the other paradegoers do the same thing.

By the time our balloon, which was No. 93 in the parade, joined the route, we were al frozen. Our balloon, Bob the Builder, was so coated in snow that he'd barely stand up. We slogged through the parade route, counting the turns until we were finished. We were so happy to turn Bob back over to the balloon company and get inside to warm up.

Apparently, Sawyer liked some of the bands and the Shriners riding in their tiny cars.







More parade photos at http://mm.news-record.com/legacy/indepth/10/12/PARADE/

Sunday, we got a tree, and Sawyer got to see Santa for a minute (he didn't know what to make of him, but he wasn't scared). He has enjoyed touching the tree and seeing the lights and other decorations we are slowing getting up.

We're gearing up for his first birthday party this weekend. We have so much to celebrate!