...And then he pranced o'er the river to Portsmouth!

Well, as we mentioned yesterday, Santa had a busy social calendar this past Saturday, because 3 hours after the Kittery parade got underway, an even bigger celebration stepped off in downtown Portsmouth. We made our own "extra-yummy" hot chocolate and headed off in hot pursuit!

This parade highlighted, among other things, the breadth of our maritime heritage around here. At one end of the spectrum, the crew of the USS Virginia, our neighboring submarine...

...and at the other, Club Finz, the local Parrothead/Jimmy Buffet Fan Club.

It was a great parade, and made even cooler by all the commotion afterwards, which included sidewalk musicians, amateur astronomers, and even a gaggle of Ron Paul supporters. The conservative blimps (tehe) parted as we strolled over to the telescopes. Soon we were talking with some very friendly astronomy buffs, and taking in amazing views of Jupiter and the moon through their extremely fine telescopes!

By the way, you might be wondering what everyone besides Charlotte is looking at in the photo above? The beautiful Christmas tree across the street!

And finally, we'll end, like last night, with a unique picture of the Big Guy himself-enjoy!

Santa came to Kittery...

It was an exciting day for all of us in Kittery when we got word that of all the towns in the entire world, Santa Claus (and his elves) had chosen OURS to visit for a Saturday afternoon! Wow! Needless to say, Kittery pulled out all the stops!


While the mood was generally lighthearted, including when the adorable junior high marching band chugged past...


...we received a sober reminder to wear our bike helmets from this slightly terrifying Kiwanis Club float. Or at least we think that's what the float was about.


Anyway, the mood quickly shifted back to cheeriness as the floats rolled on.


Folks were busily preparing for the arrival of Santa, even cleaning the chimneys before he had to slide down them.


And it was a good thing, because not even two minutes later, look who showed up!


Pretty soon, it was time to head over to the annual tree lighting ceremony. It was adorable and delicious (free hot chocolate and cookies for everyone in the town!)! And, unlike in many towns, our Christmas tree photo was photo-bombed by a holiday lobster! You almost don't even notice that Santa is busily lighting the tree.


Anyway, Merry Christmas from Badger's Island-we'll see you over the bridge in Portsmouth for part II of this series!

'Tis the Season!

It looks like while Charlotte was decorating the inside of our apartment, other folks had the same idea! These photos are from Cape Neddick, just up the road.