During the winter season, our city hosts a bunch of Christmastime events. This typically consists of a giant 20 foot evergreen tree, a carnival ride, some activities, and of course, Santa 馃槉馃巺
This year, our oldest daughter was especially happy to attend. She just turned 3-years-old, so the concept of Christmas and Santa have finally started to connect with her.
When we had first arrived earlier on in the day, we had decided to feed the pigeons. Pigeons are a very common sight in the downtown area, they have been here ever since I was a child!
Yet ever since being a child, I have never been able to get a pigeon to land on me. This is because in previous years, people were not allowed to feed the birds. Well, now that we are experiencing a different cultural climate, more people have obviously been feeding them, because this crew of pigeons happened to land on me no problem! 馃槀 You can probably note this from my terrified reaction 馃槃
Here is the lovely Christmas tree that overlooks downtown every year 馃巹 It is absolutely gorgeous... There aren't too many things that I enjoy about our city anymore, but the Christmas tree still holds a special place in my heart.
There is also a little carnival ride set up every year. One time it was a Ferris wheel. Another year it was a spinning ride 馃樀 This year it was a merry-go-round 馃帬
I was quite pleased about this because it was a ride that was suitable for both of our children (3-years-old and 20-months-old). They both loved it! Every time we would walk past, our oldest would always ask to go on 馃槃
There were a few characters and mascots as well! I am happy to note that we saw Elsa and Anna from Frozen. There were these cute actresses cosplaying as the characters. Unfortunately we are not a Disney family, and so our children have never seen the movie; they had no interest in meeting the girls 馃槄
Our local mascot was also there! His name is Stripes the Tiger, he is a mascot for our football team, the Hamilton Tigercats.
I will admit, his design is quite intimidating 馃槄 First of all, he's huge! And second of all, his smile comes across as a little evil 馃槇 Our daughter wasn't thrilled to meet him, but she still went up to shake his hand.
And of course, Santa!!~ 馃巺 Our oldest had been talking about Santa all month, she had seemed so excited about the idea. But naturally, upon meeting him, she became very upset 馃ズ It always seems to go that way, doesn't it?
Here are just some extra shots of our daughter and I playing in the city fountain 馃槃
And visiting a local church. The outside of the building was adorned with these lovely purple lights, so obviously our daughter had to take some pictures 馃槀
