Crockett Family

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Saturday was the annual Prior Lake Downtown Dazzle. They celebrate the lighting of the Christmas tree on main street (like Rockefeller but 10,000,000 times less exciting 🙂 ) have free pony rides, wagon rides,  a bonfire, a lighted parade (not quite like Target’s Holidazzle), fireside stories at the library, fireworks and last but not least, Santa Claus.

We didn’t go last year because of our experience the year before. It was our first winter in Minnesota and my parents were visiting for Thanksgiving. I heard about the downtown dazzle and thought it would be fun to experience while my parents were here . We invited our ward friends (since they all live in another city) and decided to make it a party. It was around 19 degrees and very windy. So it felt like single digits.  It. Was. Cold. Let’s just say my mom thought we were going to die in Minnesota and we spent the majority of the time camping out in the heated overcrowded jewelry store that was opened on the corner. The tree was the same size at the fir tree that was in front of my house growing up. The lights on it looks about the same as my dad’s work at Christmas time. So the whole “lighting of the tree” was kind of pathetic and disappointing. We pretty much bailed after fireworks because we couldn’t feel our fingers or our toes. I feared the worst since this was the beginning of December and I heard it only gets worse!

Last year, we weren’t really tempted to go again, so we stayed home.  This year however, with the weather being pretty nice for this time of year and not windy we decided to give it another chance. (Side note: it has just started to feel like true Minnesota winter today. November was so warm. I hardly left the house WITH a coat. I didn’t need it. We were really lucky. It was nothing like that first November! Tonight however we are on a blizzard watch  and are supposed to have 10 inches by noon tomorrow with 30 mph winds. Not excited.) We also knew this would be the only time we would be able to see Santa before our trip. We did it smarted this year, we missed the parade, watched the fireworks from a heated car, listened to stories and ate cookies near the fireplace in the library, then made the small walk across the street to Town Hall visited Santa and did fun gingerbread man crafts. Our friends the Wilsons met us there. Kate was so excited to see her friends. It was a lot better than the first year we went. I think I will have to start making this a tradition again. He was a jolly Santa. Plus Kate has been trying to be a better helper around the house ever since she met him.  . . 🙂