Mainx24 Fireman Breakfast and Parade

This is our third year to hit up the Mainx24 event, starting with the Fireman's Breakfast and Parade. This year the weather was cold but not freezing and no rain. It was also the 10th year for the event to be held and the streets were packed!

We made plans to meet friends at the Fireman's Breakfast and it was crazy. We could barely find a seat and then had to wait 15 minutes to be served. I'm glad the money is going to a good cause, I hope they figure out a better way to serve their pancakes in the future!

After eating pancakes, Jack and Daniel toured the firehouse while I saved us a spot on the street for the parade. We enjoyed running into lots of friends and then watching the parade.

Jack and his friends were pumped about all of the candy they collected and Isaac was generally mesmerized by everything that was going on. He did NOT want to sit in his stroller.

Many of the usual suspects appeared in the parade this year – including marching bands, the BookMobile (my favorite), decked out VW camping vans, and the Mutt Strutt.

And this year we were even privy to a wedding that occurred on a parade float! This is such a fun event. If you haven't been before, you need to put it on your to-do list for next year!

After the parade ended, we checked the schedule to see what else was happening. We made our way to do an ornament craft with the local Roller Derby Girls.

And then we walked down to Velo Coffee Roasters to watch people sumo wrestle each other.

The kids thought this was hilarious. Too bad they don't have little sumo wrestling!

We had such a fun morning. We can't wait to do it all again next year! I love our little traditions and the month of December is packed with fun stuff.

Mainx24 Years Past: 2015 │ 2014

Christmas 2015

 

Our Christmas this year started out very low key. It was just the four of us. 
At home.

After several days of rain and fog, there was a break in the weather and Christmas Eve Day was warm and sunshiny. We took the opportunity to take a family bike ride around our neighborhood. Each time we do this, Jack gets a little better with his biking skills.

 

That evening we drove around to see neighborhood lights in our town. Jack must have been worn out from our bike ride because he fell asleep almost as soon as we started driving. Before heading home from the lights, we grabbed a pizza from Domino's.

Christmas Eve we let the boys unwrap one family gift containing pajamas, hot chocolate and a Christmas movie. This year it was A Charlie Brown Christmas. Jack thought it was "cute."

Once in bed, Jack said it was too long until good morning time (what he currently calls morning) and that he didn't want to wait that long for Christmas. I told him that the sooner he closed his eyes and slept, the sooner it would be Christmas. He fell right to sleep.

 

While the boys slept, Daniel and I wrapped the last of the gifts.

I don't know how many years will go like this, but right now Jack and Isaac both sleep in until after 8:00 and even after he was awake, Jack was super patient about the whole Christmas presents thing. We ate a leisurely breakfast and didn't start on the stockings or presents until after 9:00am.

This is the first year we had Jack choose presents to give each of us. He really enjoyed picking out something for Isaac, then taking a turn wandering around Target with me to find something for Daniel, and finally going with Daniel to find something for me. Next year I may have him make presents, but this was a nice introduction to the idea of giving gifts.

 

We don't do Santa presents, but we did do a visit to Santa on our trip last week where we discovered that a Ninja Turtle costume was high on Jack's wish list. 

Since we had already purchased gifts, Daniel made a last minute order from Amazon and we told Jack that the Ninja Turtle costume was from Isaac. He said it was his favorite gift and that he got everything he wanted. We don't buy a lot of gifts, so that was sweet to hear.

Isaac experienced a lot of firsts this Christmas, each experience is so new and he really seemed to enjoy himself. He is sitting really well and sat in the middle of the floor where he had a ball pulling the wrapping paper off of gifts (and then trying to eat it). He was a bit ambivalent about his toys, but did seem to love his brother's toys. 

My sister has spent her entire life complaining about how the first-born gets everything and the second-born (and subsequent kids) get overlooked. It is really hard as a parent because I already see that playing out with Isaac. 

While he is well loved, he mostly gets hand-me-downs and where Jack was fawned over with visits and excessive presents and a million "first Christmas" ornaments, Isaac did not. Thankfully he is too little to care, but I hope to make an effort to make sure he feels equal in that regard as he grows.

 

Where we live, the weather was unseasonably warm and rainy on Christmas day. Heavy fog and raining cats and dogs. My brother drove up from Nashville and barely made it to our house before two of the three roads roads up our mountain closed, leaving one access on and off the mountain. 

The rain, along with flood warnings, continued all day. You don't think about a mountain having flooding conditions, but the runoff down the mountain was swift moving and enough to make the roads treacherous. 

Hydroplaning on a mountain road that drops off on one side is not a good prospect. Also, the runoff down cliffs was bringing down a lot of debris that had to be cleared from the roads. 

One of the roads actually ended up collapsing in one spot from the barrage of water. It was a crazy weather day for sure.

We have a tradition of going to eat Hibachi on Christmas Night (Jack's first Hibachi experience was when he was about a month old). With the crazy weather and only one way off the mountain we debated the logic in leaving our home. In the end, tradition won and we safely made it to have dinner with one of Daniel's sisters and their dad and his wife.

Hibachi was a little bit of a disappointment this year in that our chef lit the table on fire as soon as he stepped up to the table. Normally the chef lights an onion volcano at a later point in the meal, and that is what we had prepped Jack for. Unfortunately Jack freaked out and ran away from the table, and our chef proceeded to cook our meal without any special effects. 

Of course Jack was fine and ended up standing in his chair watching the other chefs in the restaurant do cool tricks with their knives while lighting tables and onion volcanoes on fire. Isaac was pretty mesmerized by the whole process. Thankfully the food was delicious and we enjoyed our visit with family, even if I felt a bit cheated with the show.

Two days after Christmas we headed to Nashville to spend some time with Daniel's family. We had a lovely Christmas dinner and the kids received more presents. 

Up until now Jack has been the only kid, this year two more boys were added to the mix – we had another baby and one of Daniel's cousins also had a little boy. It was fun seeing the two little boys interact (they are about 2 months apart).

After Christmas with Daniel's family was wrapped up, we went to meet some of our old friends from Cookeville. Jack had a blast playing with their kids and we enjoyed catching up. It's been four years (too long) since our last visit!

 

Finally rounding out this extended Christmas week, we went to my aunt's house in Ashland City where we were able to visit with some of my extended family including one aunt and uncle and their family from Canada, as well as my parents who had driven over from Arkansas.

What started out as a very low-key Christmas ended in a very busy week of visiting and seeing as many people as we could see. We are all set for a quiet evening at home for New Years and hopefully we will accomplish some house projects in the next couple of days.

 

We hope you had a very Merry Christmas and were able to spend time with loved ones!

Our Live Christmas Tree: A Christmas Tradition

 

As is our tradition, we set up a live tree in addition to our little fake tree. Unfortunately, due to weather and time constraints, we were not able to make it out to a Christmas tree farm this year.

Instead we chose to go to Jack's preschool where the church was selling trees to raise money for a local Boy Scout troop and youth group activities. It didn't hurt that the preschool/church is less than a mile from our house!

I'm a little sad that we (meaning Daniel) didn't get to cut down the tree ourselves, but it was a sweet family experience none-the-less. I'm pretty sure Daniel would make this the new tradition if he could... we shall see.

While this year's tree doesn't rival the size of some of our trees in years past, it is still pretty much as big as the room can handle. We tend to go with Griswold-esque trees instead of Charlie Brown trees.

In preparation for this year's tree, we actually swapped our formal living room with the dining room since the dining room has more windows.

Even though the room is smaller, it is nice and cozy and we love to see the tree when we drive up to our house. 

Another tradition in our family is to decorate the live tree with white twinkle lights and homemade gingerbread cookies (future post will include recipe link). Pre-kids I would string popcorn and cranberries and sometimes make a paper ring garland. Those traditions may make an appearance again when our kids are older, but for now we are sticking with lights and cookie ornaments.

I love Jack at this age. He is really getting into the spirit of Christmas and starting to enjoy these traditions. I hope that the memories we make will stay with him and that as an adult he will reminisce about this precious time spent together.

Isaac is old enough to be curious and stare at wonder at the lights and the efforts of his big brother and parents. I am savoring these moments, but also look forward to when he can participate a bit more. Until next year...

Mainx24: A Christmas Tradition

Mainx24 is a newer tradition for our family. Last year we participated in our first Fireman's Breakfast and the Mainx24 Christmas Parade and we loved it, so this year I wanted to make sure we didn't miss out.

I knew that Saturday was going to be a busy day for us (Daniel had plans for an afternoon hike with friends) and his mom was also coming into town, but we still managed to squeeze in the breakfast and parade on a gorgeous December day.

We all slept in (a first!), but I managed to get everyone awake and out the door by 9:30am. We arrived at the fire station at 10am and had just enough time to eat breakfast and then walk outside to enjoy the parade.

 

This is the same timeline we followed last year and it was perfect for kids – no extra waiting in line for pancakes and the parade started right after breakfast was over.

 

While we ate our pancakes, someone played Christmas carols on a grand piano. The music was nice, but then a lady got up to accompany the piano. Jack's reaction sums it up, "That lady is yelling and it scares me." He proceeded to cover his ears for the duration of breakfast. To be fair, the singing probably wasn't as bad as it sounded, but the PA system was lousy and all together it was not working. So we gobbled up our pancakes and headed outside.

We found a good spot right outside of the fire station and then ran into a college friend. We love that even though Chattanooga is a city, it is still small enough to run into friends at local events! 

We thought that Isaac would nap in the stroller, but he loved watching all of the floats and people walk by. Jack loved collecting all of the candy and now our candy dish is restocked and should last us until Easter.

My favorite part of parades are the marching bands. I always get a little choked up. I guess it just makes me feel nostalgic. Jack really liked the marching band too – even when they stopped right in front of us and banged loudly on the drums!

 

There was a man playing an organ directly behind where we were standing, so in addition to the parade, we were serenaded with Christmas music the entire time.

 

Other favorites included the Chattanooga Fire Cabaret and the Book Mobile (they pass out books to kids every year). I also adore all of the old jeeps and cars, and the VW Campers decorated for Christmas.

I'm looking forward to next year! Mainx24 lasts for 24 hours on Main Street with many more activities. Hopefully we will be able to squeeze in a couple of other things next year in addition to the pancake breakfast and parade.