The lead-up to Christmas at Babcock Ranch is impressive. It all starts with a tree lighting ceremony. At this event, there is some festive music, some kids singing, face painting and other crafts and the town’s founder, Syd Kitson, gives a speech. At some point during the speech, Santa Claus arrives with a police escort. He makes his way to the tree and a countdown from 5 begins…
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
LIGHTS!
The tree lights up and “snow” shoots into the warm Florida sky from fake snow machines. Kids go wild. Parents soak in the Hallmark movie scene. You have to pinch yourself to ensure this is real.
The next day, we had a final regular season soccer game. Both kids won! We went to a friend’s house to decorate cookies and play chess. Emerson is becoming quite the chess player. A second “Elf on the Shelf” showed up – named Check. A regular week of school. I decorated our house somewhere in there.
The following weekend, the kids had a festive Food Truck Friday. Saturday morning was the big end of season soccer tournament. Emerson’s top-ranked team won the U6 championship! Adelaide’s scrappy team managed a 1st round victory and lost a really close, hard-fought championship. The awards ceremony was a nice way to end a wonderful season. And that night was the school’s sing-a-long. Adelaide performed a cheer routine and sang with her class. Emerson sang really well with his class too!
This week has begun with school dress-up days all week and Adelaide and I are going to a big party on Thursday night…more to come!