I remember in my high school Latin class that we once asked our teacher how to say “parade.” We had finally stumped him! Well, I’m not exactly sure how you’d say Christmas parade in Latin, but I now know that parade is pompa as in pomp and circumstance. Let me assure you that the Christmas parade we went to downtown on Saturday was nothing short of pomp and circumstance.

Notice for example that there was an entire clown troupe.

Lots of marching bands.

And a giant shopping cart reminding us to support local farmers and businesses.

We thought the Christmas parade would be a wonderful family outing. The weather was perfect with warming sunshine and crisp air. However, once we got downtown and parked our chairs right on the side of the street, Poppy went shy and acted a bit disturbed by all the pomp and circumstance.

She just wasn’t sure of some of the floats…

But then again, sometimes neither were Mummy and Daddy.

It wasn’t long before Poppy did find some floats she liked though.

In the end it was a wonderful (three hour long!) Christmas parade that gave us a great foretaste of the holiday season…

…but we’re still not sure what this guy was doing…