Silver Bells In The City

We went to the annual Silver Bells In the City this past weekend. 70,000 of your best friends mill around the downtown area and the state capital. All the shops stay open late. There are people who walk around with huge backpack dispensers filled with free hot chocolate. Krispy Kreme donates thousands of free donuts. The churches play Christmas Carols on the Karillion bells in their steeples. The state capital is open for public viewing.

We got there early to reserve our perfect spot for viewing the lighted Christmas parade. Hundreds of businesses find a vehicle and decorate it with lights run off of a generator. This is a garbage truck with Captain Curby dancing on top. Captain Curby is the mascot for the largest waste company in the area. He's kind of cute up there shaking his container.

Here is a bus decorated to look like Rudolf. The pictures really don't do justice to the work and labor involved in this parade. My camera sucks so they are blurry but were beautiful in real life.

The night took on a different tone when a lady and her daughter, (who had just finished their shift serving food at the church we were near) were standing next to us and she was upset because some guy decided to stand in front of us with his son on his shoulders. The daughter asked him nicely if he would remove him so that we could all see. The guy told her to "Fuck Off". His wife then proceeded to call us all bitches and told us to move if we didn't' like it. Now, we had been standing in that very spot for (here's a picture with all the losers who moved in front of us)over an hour before the parade started and this asshole had just walked up after the parade started. I forgot to mention that the temperature was a balmy 30F with a windchill of 11F, so yeah, it was a bit chilly to be standing outside for hours while it snowed. The lady's daughter starts to take off toward the guy like she's going to punch him or his wife. The lady grabs the daughter and pulls her back, saying, "This is my daughter that's usually so passive." The guy kept playing the idiot and kept the son up for another 10 minutes but did finally give in and take him down. The lady was cool though because she shared her handwarmers with me. This night is really about sharing and the kickoff of the holiday season.

The grand finale is the lighting of the state Christmas tree with fireworks above the dome of the Capital building. We didn't get to see it because my oldest daughter was playing her bass at the community college because you can't play string instruments in the cold. We ran like mad so we wouldn't miss her. Here she is and she's almost as big as the bass. We have to haul that sucker to all her performances. I asked her if she could have picked a bigger instrument and she said she wants to play the Tympany (she's not kidding. Tympany are the huge drums that you play with mallets. They're like 4 feet in diameter). I know those won't fit in my van. She also plays the orchestra bells, percussion and piano. I can't keep up with this child.

It was a great night of family fun. My dad and stepdad (he's been married to my mom for 27 years) came along. It's nice that they get along enough to be there for the kids.