Christmas in July

Normally, I get a little salty about Christmas in July.

I love Christmas and I love July and I like to enjoy them both as thoroughly as I can.

Never the twain shall meet, especially as July starts to wane and I get a little panicky that summer is going to leave me before I’ve enjoyed every single thing it has to offer.

Thoughts of snow? I’m team Ho Ho no!

Then, I rounded the corner of Houdini Plaza Saturday morning and saw my friend Cathy merrily spraying snowy bubbles, and children dancing beneath, and Santa dressed in his festive summer attire. I felt my curmudgeonliness melt away.

Of course it helped that I had my little New Jersey bagel with me and every day feels like Christmas when I get to hang out with her.

She loved the snow-bubbles. She loved summer Santa too, with just a little less exuberance.

Really, our granddaughter Margo loved everything we did with her during her whirlwind weekend in Wisconsin — and we did a lot.

We spent some toasty hours at a cool Sunflower Festival, floated down a river, visited donkeys and deer, went to the Farmer’s Market, under ducked a bunch of different swings, Fred Flinstoned our vintage orange plastic car, swam at Erb Park, and ate purple ice cream at Frios and cheesecurds at Tom’s Drive-In. We picked raspberries and ate them right off the vine.

We picked our neighbor’s basil, too, we agreed that it smelled so good!

On this trip, our little peanut spent 68 hours here in Wisconsin (thank you very much Allegiant Air) and we enjoyed every minute.

Thanks to Appleton Downtown Incorporated, the Appleton Parks and Recreation Department, Bergsbaken Farms, and every small business we visited for a holly, jolly July weekend.