Last First Friday Before Christmas!

Well, we walked up to the Village tonight to take part in the big December First Friday festivities. The main attraction being the lighting of the Village Christmas tree by Santa himself. Here's some pictures along with the narrative:

A group of carolers was pressed right up against the glass outisde Birdie's. Note my incredible shaky-photo-in-the-dark-skillz.

Naturally, we headed straight for the toystore after Jr. V ducked into Fat City to greet several of his friends. We'd all eventually end up at the Toy Store, 'cause it's our destiny. After checking out the offerings and some presents we may have to pick up later when the recipient isn't watching our every move, we headed back outside to secure a spot over by the tree.

It's rather foggy tonight, even more so now, but the fog certainly beats the torrential rains we've had since October so we were not complaining.

Of course, we ran into Jessie from The SW Community Connection, who is at pretty much any event anywhere in our area. We strategized on good places to get a picture of the tree, which was not yet lit. Crowds built up quickly as we found a spot on the corner and she photographed a few people and interviewed Michelle from Village Beads as the excitement built up.

Santa was making his rounds (one of the kids in the caroling group was his "#1 fan", at least according to the kid, who kept trying to get Santa to hear him say it. In this picture, Mr. Claus high-fives Jr. V's friend Zev.

Jessie wondered if there would be a countdown to the lighting of the tree... The answer to that was no. With no fanfare whatsoever, the tree was off, then on!


And here's the tree after it was lit up! This is the first year that the MVBA has "done" a Christmas tree, but it seemed a very popular event, so I suppose it won't be the last. Breakfast with Santa at the Lucky Lab tomorrow morning, and don't forget to do your Christmas Shopping in the Village tomorrow, since it's Maplewood Day, where a percentage of what you spend is donated to the Maplewood Elementary Playground Fund.

Speking of Maplewood fundraisers... wanna buy some wrapping paper, or coffee, or cookie dough, or pretzel dough, or scrip, or books, or God knows what else?