Village Life 3 - Christmas Parade

My neighbor across the street texted me last Saturday morning.  "There's a super cute Christmas parade on Ocean Avenue at 9," she said.  It would have been shameful of me not to walk the few steps around the corner to see what this was all about, so I smeared on some lip gloss and ran out the door.  I thought that the parade must be a pretty big deal judging by the cars stalking our street for a long enough span between driveways to park in a nonchalant, "I belong here" way.

This kid's gonna fail first grade because she didn't want to prance.

When I was a girl, growing up in a tiny little town in NJ called Fanwood, we had a Memorial Day parade like this, so I knew what to expect.  Fanwood's parade was in conjunction with Scotch Plains and we had a high school, so our parades had a marching band.  I really noticed the lack of music in this parade. I'm not talking Mariah Carey or the Mummers.  Just a little marching band.  Maybe the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's drum and horn section could march in next year's parade.

Christmas Blues

Okay there was one bit of music.  It was great.  I don't know who the bad were but they were jamming on one of my favorite Christmas songs, "Santa Claus Is Back In Town."  I wished they could have stopped in front of me and played the whole song.  I wish I knew who they were!

You know me and Mexican stuff.  I loved this float.

At some point mid-parade my neighbor casually mentioned that her daughter was coming up, riding in a convertible as Brevard County's Distinguished Young Woman.  I worked very hard to get a picture of her, and totally failed because I was trying so hard.  She's a beautiful girl and very smart and talented and all of that rubs off on me because I'm her neighbor.  Just kidding -- check her link out and wish Beatrice Ottomanelli all the luck at the state competition in 2014.

Cookie Monster Dad and his troop or class or something.

The Daughters of the American Revolution, of which I am one.

I want this golf cart.  I would never un-decorate it.

Dog, check. Coffee, check.  Bun-bun, check check.

Melbourne Beach Marine Rescue thank you very much.

Word.

Gemini Elementary cheerleaders!  Go go go!

And at the end of the parade comes...

SANTA CLAUS!

If you look closely at the pictures you'll see that we had to borrow a fire truck from Indian Harbour Beach! Yes!  Santa's sleigh, Sleigh #56, is on an Indian Harbour Beach fire truck.  I guess that's okay.

All in all it was a nice morning and a nice parade.  I really enjoyed seeing all the families proudly cheering on their kids.  Those kinds of moments left me too soon, and I miss them.