Holidazzle

We waited until the last possible night, be we made it. Tonight we headed downtown for the final Holidazzle parade of 2010. This is not Mallory's first Holidazzle, as we went in 2008, when Mallory was five months old. We used to go every year, but we missed last year due to the weather. Every day we had planned to go, it either snowed, or was below zero temps. Tonight wasn't so bad, it was cold, but in the teens, so it was doable. We took the Metro Transit Light Rail train, which Mallory loves. She is always very excited to ride the train, can you tell?

We did a little sight seeing when we got to Nicollet Mall, as the parade didn't start for another hour and it was too cold to wait outside the whole time. We decided to hang out in Gavidae Commons, because they had a Caribou Coffee and a HUGE Christmas Tree.

Once it was parade time, we headed out into the cold and picked out our spot.

We watched with anticipation, and even though we couldn't feel our fingers and our toes, it was so much fun watching each float go by, all lit up and festive for Christmas. Mallory's favorite was The Wizard of Oz.

The parade only lasts about 25 minutes, which is the perfect amount of time for a toddler in these kinds of temperatures. Even so, Mallory did great and was VERY excited to see Santa at the end. Here she is, shouting SANTA while watching him approach atop Christopher's shoulders.

We had a great outing as a family and hopefully started a fun family tradition for us. Everything Christmas related this year so far, has been super fun with Mallory. She is at the perfect age, starting to understand Christmas and everything that it means. She is very excited to see what Santa brings her and talks about Santa, Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman everyday. It's been really fun watching her take it all in, and tonight was no exception!