Scots and Soldiers

Our December was packed with school, work, music lessons, band and orchestra concerts, rifle team shoots, visitors, and even hunting trips, but we managed to squeeze in a few family adventures, too!

Nearby Alexandria has a rich Scottish history that it celebrates each year with a weekend of activities in early December, including its Scottish Christmas Walk and Parade.  We missed it last year, but the First Virginia Regiment was participating in the festivities this year so we had definite plans to attend.

Random fun fact for our Dundee, Oregon friends:  Alexandria's sister city is Dundee, Scotland!

It was a gorgeous day for a parade, and we watched in amazement as clan after clan passed by in their traditional tartans.  Who doesn't like seeing men in kilts and listening to the nasally honking of a good tune on the bagpipes?  ;)  The pictures and video below will give you the flavor.








At the conclusion of the parade, the First Virginia Regiment began its reenactment of "A Soldier's Christmas" at the Carlyle House.  (We have a blog post from earlier this year giving more information about this beautiful historic house.  See http://www.4thcorpsofdiscovery.blogspot.com/2015/02/full-immersion.html )

The soldiers in the regiment were depicting what life would have been like for a Revolutionary-War era soldier during Christmas time.  They gathered around the fire and visited with passersby and also periodically formed up for drills and musket-firing demonstrations that rattled the windows of the historic buildings nearby.  

A militia bagpiping group that had marched in the parade even played a few tunes in the soldier's encampment area when our own fife and drum corp was on a break.  

Adding to the beauty of the day was the gorgeous display of fall color below.  All the other trees in Northern Virginia were virtually bare by early December, but somehow these spectacular trees had hung on to their leaves and treated us to a final farewell to fall before winter fully sets in.