Christmas Pageant

Waiting for the pageant to start

One thing I have always loved, about having little ones, is watching their faces when they experience something new. The older kids reactions were usually predictable, but Felix's reactions are often a surprise. The things I think he might be frightened off, he isn't, but then he may be a bit scared by something I thought he would be OK with.

Lots of motorbikes

Last night was the local Christmas pageant in our town of 22,000 people. I think nearly everyone in town lined the streets to welcome Santa! It was great to see so many happy, smiling faces and excited children. Although Felix went to the pageant last year, he was still pretty little, so I was looking forward to seeing if he enjoyed it this year. It was our Grandson, Noah's, first pageant and, to get to spend it with him as well, was pretty special. As soon as we arrived on the main street, pushing Felix along on his little tricycle, he started pointing at all the people and didn't quite know where to look first. It was looking pretty promising. We spread out a mat on the kerb and sat Felix down with us. He looked excited straight away.

Dog rescue float

Very hungry caterpillar

At the beginning of every Christmas pageant, a whole bunch of motorbikes ride past before the pageant officially starts. The noise is pretty loud because they ride past so close to where everyone is sitting and, straight away, I looked at Felix to see if he was going to cope with it. His face was hilarious. I could tell that part of him was absolutely terrified but, at the same time, he was totally fascinated and couldn't take his eyes off the bikes. He pointed and there were plenty of "Oooooh's" and "Aaaaah's". Every so often, he gave Aaron a quick cuddle, for reassurance, but then he stood straight back up to watch the bikes again. He was so brave, and we were really proud of him.

What's next?

After the motorbikes, there was a Police car with it's lights flashing and siren sounding. Felix wasn't quite  sure about the noise, and cuddled Daddy but didn't take his eyes off the car for a second. Once the Police car had gone past, the pageant started. Felix loved it! There was so much to see and so many colours and sounds. His eyes went from one thing to the other. Every so often, he gave us a little hug but he seemed to be having a really good time. He even waved to the people on the floats which was awesome!  There was a 'Very Hungry Caterpillar' float which he loved, and he also loved the animal rescue float that had real dogs on it. When Santa's float arrived, Felix waved and pointed but, as we found out later, he wasn't so impressed with Santa up close!

Santa's sleigh being pulled by
kangaroos

Not a fan of Santa this year!

When the pageant had finished, we all walked to the gardens near the beach to have some dinner. There were lots of food stalls set up and some activities for the older kids to do. We spread out our mat on the grass and ate our food in the sunshine. Felix was getting pretty tired by this point but, when I saw Santa walking through the crowd, I just had to take Felix over to him to see how he would react. I had a feeling it would probably be disastrous, and it was. Felix was fine until we were within a metre of Santa, and then he started shaking and buried his head in my shoulder and started crying. I couldn't help it, I had to get someone to take a quick photo anyway. It's definitely a very memorable photo and, I'm sure it will give us all plenty of laughs in years to come!