Caught in the lights

I share this story especially for Mom, who was teased so much for having her Christmas decorations up at Thanksgiving. (In her defense, she put them up early because she wanted her granddaughters to see the house while it was decorated.)

Friday afternoon we left Mom and Dad’s house, and I was in the mood to do some shopping. I had been wanting to do some shopping in downtown Washington for awhile. We had tried shopping there once already, but we but got there at 10 minutes to 5:00 without knowing the shops all close at 5:00. So I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try again; after all, we were going to be driving right by Washington on the way home. We weren’t going to be arriving until around 5:00, but it was a Friday and all the shops are open late.

So we get to downtown Washington and I see a lot of people walking around. I don’t think much of it. I simply comment on how it’s a happening place to be that evening. Then we turn onto a different street and see lawn chairs set up on the sidewalk. At this point I’m beginning to wonder if there’s a parade. Sure enough, we see some of the floats getting ready.

We decide we can still do some shopping. We made it into a total of two stores looking for Christmas gifts. As we walked out of the second store we realized that there was nowhere to walk. The sidewalk was completely packed, leaving only the street for walking purposes. So what else were we to do? We stood on the only available sidewalk (right behind a parked car!) and watched the parade of lights.

A mere one day after teasing Mom about all of the Christmas festivities, we were stuck watching a Christmas parade. It was an enjoyable time. Chloe especially liked the marching bands. And it all ended with a special wink from Santa. Not exactly what we were planning, but it was a nice family outing.