An evening without pictures

One of the things we love about living in Marietta is the "small town feel." There's something wonderful and romantic about a small, old town, rich in history, with traditions all its own. Marietta, for us, is the epitome of all of these things.

Tonight was the annual lighting of the Christmas tree in town. We had actually almost forgotten about it, but another cute Marietta tradition (Santa riding up and down the streets on a firetruck with the red lights spinning all the while shouting "Merry Christmas! Join me at Old Town Hall at 7:00 when we'll light the Christmas tree!") reminded us. We saw the firetruck and flashing lights coming and made it out onto the front porch in time for the kids to wave to Santa. And of course, Santa waved back. Ryan and I looked at each other and said "Oh, goodness, that's tonight!" We even had it on our calendar.

So we hurriedly ate our dinner and got bundled up. We wanted to get there early this year because they are VERY punctual about the whole tree lighting thing and we didn't want to miss it like we did last year. (We were about 42 seconds late last year. Like I said, VERY punctual!) We hopped in the car and drove to the center of town (about a two minute drive at 19 miles per hour). We parked along Market St. and walked over to the Old Town Hall Museum. We got there in time to see Santa and Mrs. Claus ride up on the firetrucks. They were undoubtedly reminding Marietta residents right up until show time! They came off the truck, greeted everyone and then the tree was lit. It actually caught us by surprise because there were no countdown! There was a cute little band playing Christmas carols. It was absolutely picturesque. Then we marched on over to Old Town Hall (just across the street), where everyone waits in line to sit on Santa's lap and then have some cookies and punch. Yes, cookies and punch for all the children.

And there are no pictures of this lovely evening. I'm sure that other people were taking some delightful pictures of the tree, the lights, and Santa. But not us. We even had the camera. But the camera doesn't work well without the battery, which was sitting on the kitchen counter after being freshly charged this afternoon. So, it was an evening without pictures. We'll just have to store the images of this fun adventure in our minds.