It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Greetings from the Great White North!

Festivities are in full gear here in Smith... never have I seen anywhere so Christmassy...

We've missed a number of the events as I needed to be up in Yellowknife for a few days last week... but here's what has been going on in our little town (besides all of the individual parties and events) -- a Christmas tree lighting with Santa (I wrote about this already), skate with Santa, breakfast with Santa, story time with Santa, watch Santa get off the plane, swim with Santa, a Santa hockey tournament, 3 Christmas concerts, a community party hosted by the Mayor and our MLA, and a community feast ... Then there is a regular Santa Claus parade (only 3 blocks as its so cold!) AND a nightly Santa Claus float that travels down every street in town... again because its so cold, everyone just waves from their window (although we've seen a few kids running after it). A few pics below, but hopefully we'll get some more photos of the festivities next year.

So, we were hoping to be home for Christmas, but it didn't work out that way. As soon as we realized this, Rob drove across the 'highway' to get us a tree. There is no shortage of Christmas trees around here! As for the actual day, it will probably be pretty quiet, but hopefully we'll get out for a walk in the woods, and maybe a few mimosas... and we've actually been invited to a Christmas Eve get-together -- looking forward to that. Then a few days later Ottawa-bound! We look forward to seeing as many of you as we can!

Santa in Smith

So, December 1 marked the lighting of the town XMAS tree... about 100 people showed up to watch Santa flip the hydro. We were a little surprised that about 1/4 of the bulbs were burnt out, and that they were old school incandescents... maybe a little "buy a string of LEDs for the Christmas tree" community project is in order?

It was pretty amazing to see a line of kids waiting to see Santa, considering it was probably close to -20C (with the wind) and poor Santa just sitting there! And of course, the night was complete with brisk walk home in the faint glow of the aurora (we didn't stick around outside to watch it get brighter).

The next big excitement is the perpetual Santa Claus parade... apparently it goes down a different street every night throughout December... and because its so cold, people just stay inside and watch from their window! Again poor Santa! But apparently he makes many appearances -- like getting off the plane, skate with Santa and even a swim with Santa??! I will keep you posted!

(Sorry about the pics -- my little camera doesn't do so well at night)