A whole lot of people in the town and the nearby area put together a first-rate street fair and parade. Hobby and craft fairs, food booths, canned food drives for charities, open houses, caroling in front of the post office, a winter play for kids, tours of lighted homes, and a grand parade in the evening.
We ate at the Senior Center, toured the Chehalis Valley Museum, had clam chowder at the fire station, free (for donation) cookies and hot cider at the library, and watched the parade in freezing weather.
And what a parade!
Marching bands from several area schools, Shriner clowns, civic groups, local business-sponsored floats, military, fire and police units --- over an hour's worth of music, lights and gaiety. Lights on ATV's, lights in the wheels of cars, trucks, motorcycles, lights on dump trucks,
a school bus, and a cement mixer. (How do they put lights on things that go 'round and 'round?)
A whole lot of hollering between the crowd along the curb to and from the folks marching or on the floats. 
Heck, most of them know each other, anyway. The festival flyer states that the town of 4000 gets 10,000 people for the event, and it looked like that many at the parade.
A lot of pride showed in this small community in the woods of northwest Washington. Did we mention that the temperatures were in the 20's? Thousands of folks willing to stand around in below-freezing temps to watch a parade. A piece of small-town Americana at its finest.
