8 years, 7 months.

Dear Holly,

Apparently the plan was for you and your brother to ride with Nonna and Papa in the Christmas parade last Friday, as Papa is part of the local Jeep club.

But the night before, there was so much logistical planning involved. I explained to Mommy, “Okay, so before the parade starts, we need to park one of our cars on one side of the town to pick up the kids once the parade is over, so we can easily get to the kids to take them home. It’s going to be so cold and they will already be outside for so long already.”

She simply responded, “Do we all just want to be the parade?”

And that is how our whole family ended up throwing candy in the Fort Payne Christmas parade. I feel confident that we have now begun a new Christmas family tradition here on our first Christmas as a family in Alabama.

Love,

Daddy