You can tell the holiday season is upon us when all the fire departments in the county have tree lighting ceremonies to welcome in our holiday season. We had our lighting and winter wonderland on Saturday night and although we didn’t have quite the crown that Leonardtown did we still had a pretty good turnout. The weather was nice and with a bit of chill in the air but then that’s what makes it feel like Christmas is coming. It’s always nice to see all the little children and the looks on their faces when they walk into the firehouse that we have decorated in the engine bays. Nice to transform this area to a winter wonderland for all.

The people started coming by before the 5:00 p.m. start time so we were ready anyway and we welcomed them with open arms. We had not one but two moon bounces and you all know what a big hit they are with the kids. There was also a professional face painter, arts and crafts table, refreshments including Doug and Joe’s world famous hot dogs, then we also had a magic show by the guy called Reggie, fire truck rides, the fire safety house from the Ridge Volunteer Fire Department and a chance to have your picture taken with Santa.

Right around 6:00 everyone was out front to watch the tree lighting when off in the distance we all heard sirens coming our way. Well out of the night came not a sleigh but a big hook and ladder truck with Santa Claus perched on top. What a grand entrance that was and everyone just went crazy. As he got off the fire truck he walked over to the tree and with a big Ho-Ho-Ho asked if everyone would like to see the tree lit up. On the count of 5-4-3-2-1 he threw the switch and boy did the tree look so nice.

Then it was inside to take his place surrounded by little Christmas trees and presents to have his picture taken with all the little ones and some not so little. This went on for several hours and during this time we had free drawings for two bicycles. So a couple of kids went home with an early Christmas present.

Now the evening went by in a hurry and before you knew it was time to return the firehouse the way we found it. It was let all the air out of the moon bounces and the rest of the props, clean the floor and pull all the apparatus back inside for another year.

A big thank you to all the other departments that brought pumpers down so that we could give the fire truck rides and keep our apparatus in service for calls. There was Leonardtown, Second District, Ridge, Seventh District and I believe that was all but if I missed someone don’t get mad just let me know and you can bet I will put your name on here.

I think this is the last function we have this year except our visit to Chesapeake Shores Nursing Center on Christmas Eve.

Now there are a lot of pictures that I have no caption for. I just got tired. Bruce took over 200 pictures and I had to go through them and delete some. I need to take that camera away from him. Now that he is retired he's got to much time on his hands.