Running Stitches & Little Britches: The 25 Days of Christmas

I have been one busy mama! I want to take the time to celebrate Christmas with you! So we will be celebrating together all month. Christmas is an exciting time of year and there are so many ways to celebrate. This year we are trying to pick and choose the ways we celebrate carefully. We want our celebration to be meaningful and create some fun family traditions in the process. We started out our Christmas celebration a little early this year. On Saturday we went to the Chuy's Children Giving to Children Parade. Before going my husband took Little Britches to the store to pick out some toys to take. She (he) picked out 3 baby dolls just like the ones we have at home. They are Little Britches' favorite toy! We knew we had trouble when Little Britches could not hand the dolls over to the cashier for her to ring them up. We tried to tell Little Britches that these babies were for little girls who don't have babies to love at home. The logic was lost on a 17 month old, but we told her any way.

Once we found a spot on the parade route (15 blocks from our car), we enjoyed big balloon characters, marching bands, singers, dancers, and even Santa himself made an appearance. Then the parade stopped and they lowered the barrier tape so that all the kids to walk out onto the parade route and give their toys to the toy collectors. It was the moment of truth. Little Britches did not do too bad. There was not an all out fit about handing the babies over, but it was certainly not done cheerfully. But then again, I don't know that I hand things over cheerfully when I am not sure that I am going to get something better. The parade was a lesson to all of us in letting go. Letting go of the things we need to let go of so that others may have it if they need it or so that we can receive what is even better than we were hanging on to. (Like the large play kitchen waiting to be brought out of the garage and into the house on Christmas morning.) All in all we enjoyed the parade and will most likely make it an annual event as long as we can find closer parking next time.