The Christmas Parade Brigade

in Daily Bloglast year

IMG_8351.jpg

paw divider transparent.png


IMG_8335.jpg

Our town's Christmas parade has a very special place in the festivities-adoring section of my heart, mainly due to the fact that I have been a participant in it for many, many years.

IMG_8338.jpg

There's something so joyful and awesome about a parade that is just full of people who line up to promenade gleefully as a celebration of the season.

IMG_8337.jpg

That and candy. I mean come on, who doesn't like candy?

IMG_8341.jpg

Anyway, this year was a special parade for me because for the first time in almost a decade I got to be a spectator instead of a parade participant. Talk about a change of perspective.

IMG_8342.jpg

To be honest, as I stood on the snow coated sidewalk of our town's Maine Street, it dawned on me that I had never actually watched the Christmas parade, so yes, I got a little excited.

IMG_8343.jpg

That enthusiasm was shared by one of my parade watching buddies, Mr. Squish. My pal Squish is three years old and that dude was buzzing with parade anticipation glee.

IMG_8345.jpg

Buzzing might not even be a good enough of a descriptor, little bruh could barely hold still. Not that three year olds do that well anyway.

IMG_8347.jpg

Still, it was pretty fantastic to stand on the sidewalk and experience the parade through the awestruck wonder lens of my little buddy.

IMG_8348.jpg

The first thing he did was make friends with the little girl next to him and before you could say candy cane stuck in my hair they were both buried waist deep in the snow berm behind us and gleefully throwing the floof at each other.

The other small fry's grandparents were just as amused as we all were by the kiddo's antics.

IMG_8349.jpg

But then, the parade began and over the din of the gathered crowd and the squeal of the police car sirens came a bellow that still makes me chuckle when I think about it,

OH MY GOSH! FIRETRUCK! THERE'S THE FIRETRUCK!

My bud Squish has a very well developed speech ability for a toddler and his elocution is top notch. He's also louder than a group of outraged mom's on Facebook.

Everyone in a two block radius heard his shout of firetruck caused glee. It was pretty awesome.

IMG_8352.jpg

Our town's Christmas parade is super small, so small in fact that each of the entrants go around the block and pass back through Maine street at least two times. This year was a special treat because they went three rounds.

And being a small rural community we get cool things like cranes with blow up snowmen strapped to them and local artists pulling sleds adorned with teddy bears.

IMG_8353.jpg

And the UTV brigade always makes an appearance.

But the star of the parade is always Santa, and this year's Santa did an excellent job working the crowd. Also, I think he's excelling at his low carb diet, that Santa was pretty dang fit.

But that observation aside, Santa's appearance brought about the best part of our evening, at least from a spectator's point of view.

Santa was walking down the street, shaking hands with people and getting hugs from very elated kiddos. When he passed by our group, Squish looked up at his mom and said, I want to go say hi to Santa!

She told him go ahead, but like a lot of people, by the time he worked up courage and ran toward Ol Saint Nick, he had already moved on down the crowd line.

Squish was devestated by this and threw his snowsuit clad form onto the ground in the street wailing.


It was awesome. I died.


But like all good Christmas stories, this one had a miracle and a happy ending. Santa worked his way back towards us, and this time Squish didn't let the opportunity pass him by. He hit Santa's legs harder than a jacked defensive back. I laughed out loud then, profusely.

Santa was pretty awesome about being mauled by the adoring toddler and patted him on the back. Me, I felt like witnessing the whole scene of childhood awesomeness was the best existential present ever.

IMG_8344.jpg

And before you could say Ho, ho, ho, and mistletoe the parade was over. Not that I was sad about it. Sometimes the best memories are the ones that happen during brief, festive interludes.

Especially when there are over-exuberant toddlers about.

IMG_8336.jpg

paw divider transparent.png


And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's very festive and not at all Grinch-like iPhone.


Sort:  


The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the people( @ladytitan ) sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.

Thanks for sharing all those photos! I was sorry to miss the parade this year, but I had made plans with my daughter previous to the rescheduling of the parade. Maybe next year my grandbabies will be old enough to enjoy the parade, too!

Plus the snow makes it all look even more awesome! (I love saying that as we have none at the moment and I am not complaining, although the media is promising a real trouncing by the weekend!)

Congratulations @generikat! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)

You published more than 1000 posts.
Your next target is to reach 1100 posts.

You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word STOP

To support your work, I also upvoted your post!

Check out our last posts:

HiveBuzz World Cup Contest - Recap of the Final
The Hive Gamification Proposal Renewal

Hi there, @generikat. 😃 These pictures are beautiful and festive. Your Christmas parade looks exciting and a spectator's point of view. is the best. I'm happy Squish had his moment with Santa. 😅

Sometimes the best memories are the ones that happen during brief, festive interludes.

You are so right. You can relive these lovely memories anytime you want. Happy holidays. 🌲 Thanks for sharing. 😊😊

Aww, good morning @ladytitan! Thank you so much for all your kind words, they made my day😊

Happy Holidays to you too! Hope you are having the best day!!

!PIZZA

Whaauuu que llamativo y colorido es el desfile. Parece muy lindo de ver para estas fechas. Por este lado del continente lo pasamos con calor jejeje.
Saludos.

Aww, thank you so much for the kind words! And enjoy some of that warm weather for me, it's currently snowing and supposed to be -15F tomorrow lol! Muy frio😰

!PIZZA

Awww, I missed the ones of the snow fight, and grabbing Santa.... What a cool tradition!

LOL! I was too busy laughing to get my phone out of my pocket😆

It was a very fun time indeed lol!

Hope you are staying warm, we are on the front end of an Arctic blast! Already it has dumped over 4inches of snow in the last couple of hours and tomorrow night it's supposed to be -15 with enough wind that the wind chill will be -35! I am going to be not far from the woodstove for the next couple of days lol!

!PIZZA

I wouldn’t be either! So far, we’ve not had terrible low temps...

🍕 PIZZA !

I gifted $PIZZA slices here:
generikat tipped ladytitan (x1)
generikat tipped manuchio (x1)
@generikat(3/15) tipped @goldenoakfarm (x1)

Join us in Discord!