If you ask most people, they will tell you the down falls of living in an area that is remote. I say remote in a loose meaning of the term. Fifteen years in California spoils a girl. And a boy for that matter. Most of the places people live, they are no more than fifteen minutes away from, a mall, a grocery store, a movie theater, and restaurants.
We moved to Kansas and the reality here is, we are forty-five minutes from any of that. There is a little grocery store here in town and one ten miles away. But, they drive up prices and its not really budget friendly for our family. The mom and pop restaurants that are in town, well, let's just say that we haven't really found one that cooks things better than we can make them at home.
These things would make most people fold and leave. It makes some of our loved ones believe that its sub-standard living, that we are miserable and lying to ourselves about loving this small town. That is another blog post, for another time.
Then, in the spirit of whatever holiday is coming up, this town makes up for things tenfold. The townsfolk really get into the holidays around here.
The 4th of July is big, a parade, fireworks, a carnival comes to town. Memorial day and the county fair are combined into one big celebration.
Christmas is pretty sweet here too. It begins with a Lighting of the town square, and a visit with Santa himself, Hot Cocoa and cookies, horse drawn carriage rides, music.
The kids even get a sack full of goodies after seeing Santa.
We walk two blocks to the festivities.
On our walk to town square
Waiting in line for Santa, my two favorite people
Not bad for Mommy being sick, cute kid though
Watching Santa come in on the Fire truck
The man in red
Not shy at all, she made sure to tell him exactly what she wanted.
It was a fun night, with my favorite people, and that is what really counts.
I lived in a small town in Oregon as a kid, and it was small!! Sidewalks rolled up at 5pm. Literally - nothing to do. We had 2 grocery stores, 1 dairy queen, one pizza place, a library and a city pool. It was great as a kid, but as an adult, it is much harder to handle. Hubs and I talk alot recently of moving to a small town. They have their pros and cons. :(
ReplyDeleteTrav and I have always wanted small town life. Here, its like it was when we were kids. Everything is closed by noon on Sunday, it was an adjustment for us. We moved from a place where we could be near everything in fifteen minutes.
ReplyDeleteYour little town in Oregon is just like here. As far a being an adult here, Trav and I are home bodies. It has made our relationship much stronger, we're learned quite a bit more about each other.