Tree Lighting

I am so lucky to live in such a wonderful town. They have pleasant traditions. Every year, we have a tree lighting in our downtown area. There is a Ginormous tree that grows right in the center of town and that is where we gather. Carriage rides take familes around the town to admire the christmas lights that everyone rushed to get up on Thanksgiving weekend. There are wandering minstrels and groups dressed like Normal Rockwell paintings.

Dance companies perform and The Night Before Christmas is recited, then Santa rides in on a fire-truck and lights the tree. This year my daughter sang with her church choir and a group of the other church youth choirs. A few years ago she was a dancing gingerbread man with her dance company. She wasn't too thrilled to have to sing in front of the whole town but she actually had a wonderful night. I am so glad I did not let her skip out on it. Often we have to be pushed into things we don't really want to do, but then we wind up enjoying ourselves. It is such a life learning lesson for me. I am a homebody and my hubby always makes me go do stuff and I wind up thanking him.

While my daughter was singing on different corners with her choir I was able to pick up some stocking stuffers from the Blueberry factory and the other specialty shops in town. This year we have a few new restaurants and boutiques; they were all lit up and chock full of people shopping and enjoying themselves. Next week is the Fireman's Parade and there will be lots more fun. The merchants stay open late and everyone comes downtown to walk around and share happy tidings of the Christmas season. We run into families with new babies and kids back from college and take pictures of each other on the street. This year there was a live nativity at our celebration, there were real sheep and goats and alpacas along with the characters from the nativity. I did not get pictures of it because my daughter's feet were frozen and she wanted to get home, but I probably would have scared the animals with my amateur photos anyway. I will post the ones my photographer friend took when I get them. The whole evening was just so full of happiness and fun. We topped off the night with lattes from Casciano, a buffet dinner from Trina's and some Blueberry wine from Dimatteo's Winery. Enjoy the slide show.