Day AFTER Thanksgiving

Three entries in one day - in order to see the others, you will notice there are individual titles over there on the left . . or you can find them this way:

Push Me, Pull You

Thanksgiving

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Christmas Comes to Kenai . . . this is always the BIG celebration of the Kenai Chamber of Commerce. It happens every year, the day after Thanksgiving. But let me tell you about my day - from beginning until now . . .

I woke up - heh, well, that IS how I started my day. ;-) Only I woke up a bit later than I had planned. You see, the big box store (Fred Meyer) in the next town has an 8 hour sale today - from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Of course, the store is less crowded at 6 a.m. so I had hoped to get there at least by 7. HA!

Ha, I say - I woke up about 6:30 and after my shower didn't get out of the door until 7 or so. Braved the elements . . . and the CROWD . . . for, are you ready for this?

SOCKS - for my hubby. Well, they were 50% off, after all. I bought four packages of socks - $20 worth - 24 pairs. Now, I just have to get into his sock drawer and dispose of all of the thin, thinner, and thinnest socks he owns. ;-)

Then it was on to the CCtK celebrations . . . or so I thought. When I arrived to the location for the Santa appearance I found . . . two men and a little guy setting up the barricades . . . or was it taking them down? Did I miss it?

Nope - I was just two hours early, that's all. Oh, I thought it started at 9:30. Nup, come back at 11:30. Of course, the most precious was the little guy helping his grandpa (I know the grandpa). He came to the window as I talked with grandpa and told me all about setting up the barricades "because it's OUR turn to do it."

Oh, my! How precious is that? I thanked him for taking his turn and told him to have fun with his grandpa and then left to go on to another of the CCtK special events . . .

the annual Crafts Fair! By now it was about 10 minutes to 10. The fair starts at 9 on Friday and 10 on Saturday. Uh, no, not this year . . . this year it starts at 10 on BOTH days. Humpf! Well, I noticed other folks going in, so I did, too. I only bought two things there - a package of salmon pepperoni, and a package of buffalo pepperoni, both locally processed. Yum! (there were taste tests available and I hadn't had breakfast . . . yum!)

Afterwards I headed back over to the Visitors Center to join the grandkiddos in line waiting for the jolly old elf himself . . . we didn't have long to wait. Soon we heard and saw the Kenai Fire Department's ladder truck coming - with Santa riding jauntily atop and waving.

He climbed down and walked along the sidewalk shaking hands of little ones and shaking his bells and telling them all that he would see them soon inside.

We walked in with the crowd to find . . . disneyland-like arrows leading us in a snaking fashion to his throne. It was well orchestrated and I applaud the chamber for the thought that went into it this year.

After the long line . . . we came to the man himself:

Isaiah had nooooo problem for his first ever visit with Santa.

neither did Dezi

or Timothy

Kinzie, on the other hand . . .

was not quite as happy about it.

Then it was Lessa's clan's turn . . .

Jessi climed up a-talking

and Mairi had a nice little chat.

The boy has decided he is too big for Santa, so he helped in other ways - like holding Isaiah so we could get pics. But, we did get him in the group shot. (Thanks to Lessa for this pic and the Santa pics and the ones of her kiddos)

And a good time was had by all.

Tonight the festivities continue with a bonfire and carol singing - and fireworks - and an electric light parade.

We love our life here in small town Alaska. Thanks for peeking in.

Posted by Purplemoose at November 26, 2004 06:21 PM