The Grand Illumination

Last night Chris, Amberly and I went downtown to see the grand illumination of the Christmas tree at courthouse square. This was the big kick-off for all the Christmas events in the area.

After we looked at the old window displays we got some hot chocolate and moved to the square to see the tree. After a couple choirs the city commissioner got on stage to begin the countdown for the lighting of the tree. He made some remarks about how great the city is, blah blah blah and then began the countdown.

Ten.
Ten.

Someone was echoing his counts. I looked on stage and our mayor (who happens to be a drug addict and is never really all there) is repeating after the commissioner. Everyone, except the mayor, continued to count with the commissioner.

Nine.
Nine.

Eight.
Eight.

Seven.
Seven.

Six.
Six.

Five.
Five.

Four.
Four.

Three.
Three.

Two.
Two.

One.
One.

At "One." The commissioner started cheering and nothing happened. Soon the lights on the tress around the square lit up, but not THE tree. Everyone just stood there, not sure of what to do. After a painfully long wait the tree's lights finally came on.

At this point the choir on stage started to sing Jingle Bells, but they were off about a half of a verse from the music that was playing. This was because the band on the second stage had started singing Jingle Bells a few moments before the choir did. Both groups were being pumped through the speakers and it just sounded awful.

Not to worry, because the fat sound guy with the mullet went sprinting across the stage to get to the sound board and turn off the choir's mics.

Amberly, Chris and I almost fell over laughing at all of this.

Sigh. I love this city.