The Dalles opened the holiday season in a big way Friday evening with the annual Starlight Parade that had entries based on the theme A Storybook Christmas.

Don’t you sometimes just wish things were different? There are days when it is a struggle just to keep moving and your head above water. And when that happens it is easy to focus on what we don’t have (and during this season we are bombarded with all the material things we don’t have) instead of what we do — and get stuck riding a downward spiral into the sticky goop of self-pity.