Christmas on the Coosa

This past weekend, Josh and I traveled up to Elmore County.  We were looking at some houses in the Redland Road area, and then headed down to the Coosa River for some of the Christmas festivities.  There was a huge parade.  We got there about an hour late and there was still a good half hour of parade before Mr. and Mrs. Claus came by on the horse-drawn carriage.

We walked over by the courthouse where they were having a craft fair.  There was a lot of great stuff, and I found a gift for my dad.  It's a lighted wreath with shotgun shells.  I thought it might look good on dad's barn (hopefully it doesn't drive mom crazy).  It was also a  pretty good deal...and kinda makes for a fun hat.  :)

 We walked over the river, which is really very pretty.  Then we discovered there was an entire other area of crafts and food!  We each enjoyed a hot chocolate and cupcake.  Mmmm.  Then we headed down to the park for the concert by the Wetumpka City Pops.

We listened to all kinds of Christmas music, and even sang along to some of it.  At nightfall, Christmas on the Coosa got into full swing with Santa's grand entrance...water-skiing on the Coosa River!!!  Oh, the other thing that I thought was very cool, the event started with the National Anthem and a group prayer.  I love that about Alabama.  This is a very patriotic and religious state.  It's kind of refreshing to see this happen at public events without any backlash.

Following Santa was the parade of boats.  It was neat to see, but a little lackluster.  Only one boat could go down the river at a time, and then it would turn around and come back.  There was an emcee, who is a very popular name in this area of Alabama.  But there really wasn't a lot that could be done to keep the pace up.  We both got cold so we ending up leaving before the final float floated and the fireworks.

As we walked back to our car, we saw how nicely City Hall was lit up. It was such a great little town Christmas.  I had a lot of fun, and it was a nice way of feeling more at home.  It's kinda like Alabama's version of Wilmore Old-Fashioned Christmas.