Our little town was bustling today, and it makes Shawn’s insides dance with delight. Mine, too if I am being honest. We live here for the quality of life that a small town affords and today was a perfect spotlight for that quality of life.
We had about four things to do today and none of them included leaving town. I am not saying that we love rural living so much that we never leave town. Because we absolutely do. We go down the road to bigger community to partake in different restaurants, the movies, shopping centers, and kid entertainment. And even though that city is bigger than ours, it is still rural by every standard. But, when we can entertain our kids in simple forms in our own backyard, we are delighted.
Every Saturday and Sunday in the months of November and December, our athletic booster club puts on a youth basketball league boasting 68 teams. We love being able to go to all our games, right down the street. Also, that is a lot of people coming to us and spending money in our town!
Our dance studio put on a mid-year progress show in one of our school gyms and filled the gym with people from the county. We enjoyed the Christmas music and watching our girls show off some of the tumblings they have been working on.
The American Legion put on a kids bingo, complete with prizes, a Christmas card station, and even a visit from Santa. The price of admission was household items needed for area veterans. We were happy to partake in the event, give my kids something to do, and also donate to a good cause. Legion members popped popcorn and handed out juice boxes and cookies. Our youngest kids played Christmas themed picture bingo perfect for their age, while their older sister played regular bingo.
The turnout was great, the mood was festive.
As we were leaving the event, and my kids had all visited with Santa (our oldest wouldn’t tell him what she wanted, she wants to see if he will get her letter….. ), Santa grabbed my arm. I was thinking that he might tell me something my ornery second child said. But, no.
“Your turn!” he said. I am a good sport, so I sat and someone from the legion snapped this picture.
I believe in the magic of Christmas, so I asked him for a maid.