Colony Christmas in Palmer

After Friday night's late one, I didn't get an early start like I'd have liked to on Saturday. And ... I was down to 4 eggs in the house. Can't do much with 4 eggs. I got a single batch of pulla going and started hauling out Christmas decorations. I'll share pictures of my tree. Maybe even the tree stand. It is going waterless. We're saving the water for the shower and the coffee pot. :)

Denise came over with a couple girls and I took a few of mine ... and we headed to Palmer. The temp was a wee bit frigid. Denise forgot the long johns. Tia forgot the mittens. You see where this is going? Thank goodness we hopped from one craft bazaar to the next keeping inside for the most part. The idea of walking to it all was quickly nixed. It was downright chilly.

These aren't in any semblance of order. Blogger just isn't user friendly with multiple photo uploads anymore. If someone knows how to do this easily ... please let me know.

We did go view the Nativity Display at the LDS church sometime during our day. Wow! I should have asked them how many nativity displays there were. All individully owned from what I gathered when I asked. Not necessarily individual individuals, but not church owned. Amazing. There had to the thousands of them. Photography was nearly impossible. For some silly reason, I was using the long lens and it doesn't do much for taking close quarter photos when you need to be a mile away.

The wonderful thing was that all these things were free. The stinky thing was that it was downright cold. This would have been super fun to do ... get a ride on the horse drawn carriage, but to stand in line ... we'd have been icicles.

I really must read the history of Palmer and see where everything was. This area where folks were getting a different kind of ride use to be the town square of Palmer, according to what I overheard. We attempted to get into the Chamber Orchestra concert only to find out that we needed tickets. Next year a must do on the list.

The gingerbread house display at the Pioneer Home.

I believe that this was titled something like "The reindeer got away".

This was one of our favorites. Check out the candy corn bonfire. Wintertime Alaska camping with a moose off to the right.

The Salvation Army guitar concert was quite interesting. Whether they were pulling our legs or not, I have no idea. They could have told us oodles of tales about previous concerts and I wouldn't know. Had never been to one before. This one had 3 guitar players playing Christmas songs. The sing along was rather interesting ... the building was warm. :)

We headed over to find something to eat. Dairy Queen with a warm burger sounded kind of good. The parade started at 5pm and as long as we were still around ... may as well brave that as well. Fireworks scheduled at 6:30. Ross was going to join us with the rest of the kids and Jari, but his keys were in Palmer. They don't live anywhere close to Palmer. Figured that one out. Then headed to Starbucks. Aah. So reminiscent of Prescott Parade days. Freezing cold and going for hot cocoa or coffee.

We missed the parade. We got there for the last entry. People everywhere. Were going to try and outrun the parade and catch parts of it, but the people push (especially a man pulling a child behind him on the sled down the sidewalk full of people) didn't allow progress. We did get to the fireworks. Somewhere in there we even ran to Pom Pom to look at everything that was 40% off. I walked out with my complimentary cup of coffee and nothing more. :)

As seems to be a daily thing around here, I got a call from Jari while at Pom Pom. Blayde had been in the parade holding a banner for Charter College. The VW has had issues with starting and it wasn't starting. He was walking to the 4 way blinking light in Palmer and was freezing. Hmmm. I found him. We warmed him up in the Tahoe. The guys showed up for fireworks. Fireworks twice in one month!! Who needs the display on the 4th of July?! Blayde and Jari went to work on the car. It was moved to a safer place than a busy intersection and they called it quits 'til morning. No wonder Blayde was freezing. 2 sweaters, 2 tee shirts, a jacket, mitts and hat. Not bad so far, right? He even had boots on! The problem was the legging part. The long johns were in the washing machine when he left ... and he wore dress pants. Aaach!!! 2 degrees out there ... although he calls it "subzero". Either he needs some seriously warmer clothing or his blood just isn't going to get use to this stuff.

We finally made it home Saturday and it was actually early enough that Jari & I headed to Walmart. The kids headed to hockey. I got prune tarts in the freezer, the tree got trimmed ... was good! Still no Christmas picture. Now I'm aiming for next Sunday!