Rockford Santa Parade

Every year on the first Saturday in December, the city of Rockford has a Santa parade. We took Marc to it 2 years ago (believe it or not, that year was Marc's first Santa parade!). We didn't go last year, we thought Samantha was too small to out in the cold that long. So we decided to go again this year. It was cold but fun. We got there about 15 minutes before it started and got a good spot not far from where it started.Marc liked getting all the candy. (I will post a pic of it all when the kids wake up and take the pic with them). Samantha liked all the horses. There were some mounted police and horses pulling a carriage with carolers right in front of the horses pulling Santa's carriage. Every time a horse trotted by, she smiled really big. She did NOT like all of the sirens on the rescue vehicles, Marc did though. :)
As part of the parade the firefighters walk in the parade collecting toy donations for Toys for Tots. If you don't have a toy with you, you can donate money by putting it in a fire boot. Marc enjoyed donating some money.
We were really cold by the time we left the parade but we had a great time. It was a fun way to get in the Christmas spirit!