The Shadow Lady took me to her home town for one of the town's major celebrations of the Christmas Season... the Annual Festival of Lights parade.  Pretty much the whole town comes out for the parade, and its no wonder... good times, and a great tradition hail the coming of the Christmas season... what a great way to spend a weekend!

The whole town, it seems, comes out for the parade... its held at 6pm on the second Saturday of December, raining or not.

Right on Cue, the parade was led by the new police vehicle...

It was followed by the local Armory's M109 155mm howitzer... They did a demonstration showing how vertical they can get the cannon.

The school district really dressed up a bus...

A local motorcycle club pulled trailers decorated with various Christmas adornments...

It was the band that the Shadow Lady wanted to see... for a small town, the bad is huge!

The local Thriftway once again had the Shopping Cart Sleigh...  As always, it was  followed by a huge shopping go-cart.

Firetrucks from the town, and even Aberdeen joined the parade...

The taps on the shoes of this drill team really emphasized their steps.

The Presbyterian church has a "Living Nativity", where members of the church stand and model the nativity scene... before that event, they're in the parade.

Its a nice reminder as to what this is all about.

Nothing says Christmas like a pirate ship.. there were two in the parade, actually.

Santa's helpers bring the toys...

Some of the floats in the parade were pretty elaborate... some folks go all out!

Costco liked these guys, I'm sure!

escorting most of the floats were folks handing out candy, always a big hit with the kids!

Fun times!

The local track is a big part of the entertainment in the town...

Quite a few of the floats are annual items, like this one... there were singers riding in the back.

Showing off a new John Deere...

The Dump Truck is a recurring favorite... LOTS of lights!

All lit up for the occasion...

The US Forest Service even had a float.

The star of the show, though, is the Cement Truck. 

The drum spins wildly, and the colors are bright and cheerful... they leave the lights on for the whole season, and even take the truck on tour to hospitals and the like... it was pretty impressive!

The parade ends with the Yule Log being drug behind the end of the parade...

Its brought to the city square, for the bon fire...

Kids line up to get a chance to buck off a length of the log, which is then spit and thrown on the fire...

There's just something about a big fire that makes for a good time...

The Nativity Scene had its usual place in the park...

Busses lined up to bring folks around the town to several locations where the lights are set up.

Entire neighborhoods light up for the season... More pictures will follow!

After that, we went to The Shadow Lady's Grandma's place, and sang carols, and visited... what a great way to set you in the mood for Christmas!

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