Here Comes Santa Claus

This weekend Merrick and I had a fun adventure. We went to downtown West Linn for the city Christmas parade and to see Santa Claus. I was a little on the fence about going because Jeremy was busy studying for finals so I was going to have to go by myself and while I think parades are fun, parades in the rain are not. Luckily the weather was kind. When we got out of the car the sun was shining and while it was cold, it did not rain.

The center of the parade was the fire station so we started there with cookies and hot chocolate. The actual parade itself was not elaborate, but entertaining. There were horses, llamas, firetrucks, and of course Santa Claus. People on the various float threw out candy and all the kids loved that.

The highlight of the day for Merrick, however, came after the parade when Santa went into the fire station and the kids were able to go sit on his lap. This is the first year Merrick has actually wanted to sit on Santa's lap. When it was his turn, he hopped right up. I stepped back to take pictures so I did not hear the actual conversation, but Merrick tells me he told Santa he wants secret agents (from the Cars movie) and that Santa gave him an invitation to come to the North Pole and help make toys.

In any case I left our visit with Santa with a very happy boy. The icing on the cake was that as we walked back to the car we got to see horse poop on the sidewalk and apparently nothing is cooler to a three-year-old boy than a big pile of horse poop.