The Santa Claus Parade Day!

Who wants to go to The Santa Claus parade??

The Etheringtons of course. Or really mom.

And the Stoski's! And Lola's never missed a parade

(and she let her parents come with her too :))

Our parents refer to it as "The Christmas" Parade as opposed to the "Santa Claus" Parade. The reason behind this is they don't want us kids to be excited about seeing Santa lest they need to actually stay until the very end of the parade to see him.

I give them about one more year before we figure it out on our own... especially as I can now read the signs that the kids at the parade have that say "Santa Stop Here".

Ummm, why do the kids have those signs mom??

Every year we convene at the exact same spot to watch the parade.

This is a pic of mom and I perched on our cement pillar at the corner of Bloor / St. George.

Mom has watched the parade from this corner for 17 years... as she used to live on St. George when she went to U of T. And it became tradition that she travel back there on the third Sunday in November for all of her parade watching!

The parade day is one of the few times a year that Dad is forced to take the subway. And mom is always highly amused at his clear annoyance at everything TTC.

Personally, I don't know why dad doesn't like the train - it is awesome! Especially when you squeeze three excited children into two seats!

And the parade is just the beginning of our day.

We adjourn back to our house for a screening of the most brilliant christmas movie ever made - Christmas Vacation!

This is a shot of all of snuggled up on the coach in the basement to watch the adventures of Clark W. Griswold Jr.

"Fixed the newel post!" (for Leah)

The girls and kids got the couch, and the boys watched happily from Dad's new bar. With construction ALMOST complete (woo hoo) Darc and Neven were Dad's very first bar patrons! Another tradition is for the kids to wear matching embroidered t-shirts
(mom really likes her new candy cane font that she used to sew our names - thanks grandma for passing it along!)
Dad cooks up quite a feast for everyone as well.
Yummy roast complete with yorkshire pudding, peas drenched in butter and yummy mashed potatoes (although M was kind enough to make the mashed potatoes in advance - thanks M!)
And obviously christmas crackers are part of the dinner festivities. Pretty much a PERFECT day! And a PERFECT start to the holiday season!

Bring on Christmas!!