Happy Boxing Day!

Boxing Day. As sure as the 26th follows Christmas Day, we'll always have Boxing Day. Well, we won't have Boxing Day, since it is a British holiday, when tradesmen are supposed to be honored by their superiours (can that be any more British?) with small gifts, ie. 'boxes'. Of course, in many households, it is simply the day after Christmas, sighs of relief as mad shopping resulted in hoped for smiles...or not. The birds were cooked, the pies were baked, stomachs were overfilled, Or not. For families in Newtown, CT an especially odd Christmas with families united in bizarrely shared grief resulting from madness. Merry Christmas.

Here on Culebra, the sun, after playing shy, came out, the water painters arrived a bit late, as is allowed on a holiday, with deepest greens and blues getting priority, banks of dark clouds never bringing rain to us, thankfully.

I got to spend the day with friends aboard the Purple Houseboat, where good food and drink kept coming in with each arriving welcome guest. Thankfully, there were no unwelcome guests, not even a mouse.

In case you are wondering, not all of the Seven Dwarfs are ticklish. 

There was noshing and taking quick dips 1) because the water felt wonderful, if a bit cool and 2) to pretend we'd done something exerciseful -am I the only person that took a mini nap? I think so - water and boat gazing with chats in between. And then it was time to head into town for the parade.

There are two large ships in the harbor. The Amistad and the Virginia

If you are into nautical history, and some present good work, it's worth your time to read a bit about these ships. We arrived just as the lowering of the flags was occurring, and for a flash second, it was a 'taken back in time' moment.

The parade was supposed to start at 5, which we knew meant we could expect waiting until at least around 6, so we got there around 6:30-sh. As it turned out, there was still plenty of time to wander around seeing friends and people watching. The question, 'are they really coming?' became more frequent as 7 neared, arrived and passed. Getting onto 8, we could hear them; yes, they really WERE coming!

Santa and his entourage were, naturally, the first to arrive, with salsa filling the air, along with the horns of vehicles blaring and a lot of laughter.

Cartoon characters came next. I'm not real tuned in to cartoons, so I can't say exactly what was going on here, but it was, as most things go on Culebra, interesting and fun.

Mocko jumbies danced

The children's float was great. After waiting for hours, the kids were still happy and tossing candy for all they were worth. I don't think anyone got hurt by the handfuls of sweets tossed, but I'm pretty sure if you are in need of a candy cane or six, you can find them all over downtown today.

Yes, I love the mocko jumbies! Thank you, Norman, for working with these guys!

It all dissolved into a party at the plaza. Of course.

One man asked how they would get the floats and many, many golf carts driven by, as one driver said to me, crazy people, out of the plaza. It was a question none of us who live here had thought about and I'm sure he wondered why we all started laughing while trying to explain, and then giving up assured him that it would just happen as it happened.

As I walked home, a few elf driven golf carts flew by, with waves and smiles, back to the Elf Cave, I imagine. It was a good Christmas. If I had someone who brought me newspapers, acted as a doorman, helped make my life better working for me, I'd give him or her a box of something, no doubt preferably filled with a certain greenish paper item. Instead, I gave CWIM an extra helping of wet food in addition to her dry and re-strawed the chickens nesting boxes. They were gratefully puzzled.

Life is good. Be nice.

Have a know it's still a wonderful world Wednesday. Do something wisely.