Christmas 2011 will go down as one of the stand out Christmas's on Culebra for me. With the exception of not getting to hear my son's voice, even though I heard his heart in his message.. It was a day filled with music and horses and friends. Even waiting the hour plus for the parade was just turned into a good time. There were new friends and old friends who literally blended in harmonies. There was the amazing parade (at last) that I'm uploading the video for and it might take the rest of my life day, so I'm going for the now thing. But as a teaser, I will say I think it's the best parade I've ever seen on Culebra, well, except for Francie and Linda's shared 60th birthday parade, but that's a different story.
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Incoming horses! It's about 5:30 in this photo, the parade starting at 6. Things were looking amazingly timely.
Naturally, this horse and rider caught my attention
And then I knew why. This is not a one-trick pony!
The rider was nice enough to give me a little show
That is one beautiful horse and good rider (and not a crop in sight; I like that a lot). Gracias!
Ah, here is the float for D's Garden (our only nursery here and a good one). Still not yet 6 o'clock...could it possibly mean this parade would start on time?
A trickster, both rider and horse
*somehow, half my blog got poofed away, this is the re-do, sorry!*
It was getting later and darker, so I decided to walk to town...
A colorful house along the way
The lights were bright and the street lined with people waiting for the parade
and having a fine time doing just that (deja voodoo Culebra time)
Hooray!!! The parade was on its way. Hi, Santa!
Horses coming in first, of course. Have you noticed that horses play a big part of Culebrense culture? If you haven't, I can fix that.
Looking fine!
And BINK! After this shot, I video'd the parade and filled up the memory card, without a spare. The night doesn't care, and so I didn't either. On we went to Molly's party, where there was music and food and laughter and friends, some old and some new. There were guitars and a ukulele and Violin Guy was there too! It was good. Very good. As has been every party I've gone to in this season full of them, leaving memories shot through with diamond dust and still New Year's Eve ahead to make some more.
Yes, I sung. No, not alone, except for the 'I love you' part of What a Wonderful World where I might have gotten carried away a wee bit; sorry Doug!! But I woke up smiling and not wishing myself totally invisible, so on we go!
Especially for Doug, especially for all of you. Thank you!
Have a memory-making Monday! Do something marvelous.
Always ready to hear some Satchmo! And I have to admit to something embarrassing, that was for the Doug who was playing guitar at the party, How many Doug's do I know who love the man? All of them (and yes, there are more, I'll have to start using initials).
I also have to admit that I considered that it might be a Doug from another mother. Since there was no fine or jail time involved I elected to take one for the team and plead guilty to loving Satch. I have been known, whilst in the clutches of serial manhattans, to proclaim him the most important musical figure in history.
Thank you back, MJ. I have some Satch on my iPod. Stand by.
ReplyDeleteAlways ready to hear some Satchmo! And I have to admit to something embarrassing, that was for the Doug who was playing guitar at the party, How many Doug's do I know who love the man? All of them (and yes, there are more, I'll have to start using initials).
ReplyDeleteI also have to admit that I considered that it might be a Doug from another mother. Since there was no fine or jail time involved I elected to take one for the team and plead guilty to loving Satch. I have been known, whilst in the clutches of serial manhattans, to proclaim him the most important musical figure in history.
ReplyDeleteOh boy. You two are going to get along just fine!
ReplyDelete