Playing Holiday Catchup...

So, I am very clearly getting a litte behind on this thing. Between hectic days at work and sick children at home, my blog has suffered. Well, I'm back to try to catch things up before the big day. Let's take a step back in time to last weekend. We had our annual holiday party and had spent quite awhile tweaking all of our decorations and finalizing a menu (Josh finalized right up until the minute guests arrived. He's so indecisive.) We had absolutely no food in our house so Josh had to run to the store. It was perfect timing since the Purcellville Christmas Parade was right about to start. It was also Everett's nap time. I refused to miss another piece of holiday Americana due to my child's poor behavior (we missed out on the tree lighting due to one of Ethan's breakdowns.) I told Josh to drive us over and he could shop while we waited curbside. Here is a pic of Ethan ready for the fun to begin...

Everett was a twisting, turning, writhing mess in my arms. He wanted to get down. Run through the mulch. Scoot off the curb. And repeat. After about 15 minutes of agonizing wait time in the cold, the parade begun. The Loudoun Valley Marching Band serenaded us with a lovely holiday tune, "You Can Call Me Al." I don't know about you, but nothing screams Christmas more than Paul Simon (remember that video? I believe Chevy Chase was playing a bongo. Maybe that was just a connection back to Christmas Vacation.) Anywho, the parade was a success. Not too short not too long. The perfect combination of miniature ponies (Lil' Sebastian anyone?) and Clydesdales. I took a pic of almost every little horse that trotted along but only one kind of came out...

Josh finished up his shopping just as the parade was winding down, and who should come walking down the street...Santa Clause! Of course Ethan had to go out and give him a hug, but like a good suspicious child, he turned at the last moment and gave that old man the butt...

All in all, another great Purcellville Parade was in the books. We headed home and put the kids down for a nap in time to clean up the house for our partygoers. The night went off without a hitch. I wish I had some pictures, but as a good hostess normally does, I got super wasted and forgot to get my camera out. We did get to take an awesome midnight ride in Lauren's swagger wagon (driven by David Frohm) who took us on a drive-by tour of the neighborhood. Our parade of one let its presence be known by honking aloud for all to hear (5 honks for the best lit house, one honk for the most pathetic decorations.) We also had some cheesecake to celebrate 29 years of Megan Frohm and Johhny Hawkins. I must admit, there were a lot of great pjs, but Grace and Tom win bragging rights for best pajamas. If you too want to get super cozy and possibly fall down the stairs due to lack of foot grip (right, Grace?) click on the link to find out where you can purchase the most talked about bed clothes of the season.



In my opinion, the party went off without a hitch. Josh was just hungover enough to completely clean the kitchen the next day (it's this weird thing he does.) Our kids were also sufficiently worn out that they blessed us with a 3 hour nap on Sunday. Perfect holiday kickoff weekend and we were in prime spirits for the annual Roanoke Christmas Bar Crawl!