Everyone loves a parade

It snowed!



That's the most snow that we've had since I moved here, and I was totally ready for it after standing outside in the cold for hours on Friday night. I was outside because Bryan invited Kristin and I downtown for the Knoxville Christmas Parade, dinner, and a quick stop at a gallery showing because someone he knew had photographs in the show.

I was downtown a few weeks ago when the city was setting up their holiday decorations:



but last night was the first time I've been down to see them lit up:



Thousands of people came out for the parade, and we ended up finding a spot almost fourty five minutes early because the street was so packed. Eventually, though, our patience was rewarded, and the parade began:



beneath the shining Christmas star on Gay Street:



It was pretty typical for a parade. There were floats:





and bands:



and the trolley (which we missed when we needed to head back home because we stopped to talk to Gavin when we ran into him at Soccer Taco, and we had to walk):



and... Santa's boat?



And also a truck full of the... uh... Vikings of the Smokies?



What the hell? How are there Vikings in the Smokies? Did they pilot their big dragon-prowed Viking ship up the Mississippi and then the Tennessee River until it ran aground in the mountains? No mention of Vikings in the Smokies was made when I toured the Hillbilly Village museum in Pigeon Forge, but I did kind of get the impression that they weren't being a hundred percent factually accurate there. I think everyone standing around me was as confused as I was, because the only thing that got less applause was the car for the Knox County Democratic Party:



Toward the end of the parade we decided that we were cold enough, and went to go get dinner on Market Square before everyone else at the parade could decide that they were cold and hungry, too. On our way to Soccer Taco, where I had mediocre flan, we passed by Reruns and I saw the Boozehound Gandy Dance performing their hobo cabaret in the front windows:





I had to leave to go to our table before the end, so I don't know how the show went, but it seemed to be going well, and I left a donation in the pizza box in front of the window.

Anyway, we had a good time at the parade and dinner, and then Saturday morning when I woke up there was snow! At first, listening to the emergency vehicles go by about six times, I wasn't sure I wanted to leave the house, but when I went out on the porch I realized that it was so warm that the snow would soon be gone. I headed to the university gardens to take as many pictures as I could even as the snow dripped and melted around me:





You can tell how warm it's been here by how many flowers were caught completely off guard:







We've only had one really hard frost so far this year but now, finally, we've had snow.

And I'm totally ok with us not having any more.