christmas ships parade

Last night was the night I had been waiting for. . . giddy with excitement like a kid in Build-a-Bear. Last night was the night we were invited to Tom & Rita's yacht, the Pretty Penny, for the Christmas ships parade. OH. MY. WORD. It was so much fun! I have always wanted to see the parade, but with Phil's wack-o work schedule, it's just never worked out. But this year, we made it work. And not only did I get to see it, I got to be in it!

We met them at the yacht club in their boat house. Their yacht is beautiful. It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms below, a full kitchen, dining area, living room, and decks all around and up. There were 12 people total on board, including some other friends from church. Rita and I are on worship team together, and we both scrapbook together at our friend Liz's house.

We set off down the Columbia River to the Portland Harbor. That whole area is nothing but house boats and floating homes. Everybody and their brother had scheduled their Christmas parties for Friday night and they were all out on their docks and decks yelling "Merry Christmas," and "Hey Santa! I love your yacht!" and "Your horn is louder than my horn!" And yes, that yacht had a loud horn. Not once did we hear Happy Holidays either - it was Merry Christmas the whole way. We all stood out on the deck and waved and yelled back. And Phil provided us with his very Santa like "ho-ho-ho's." There was a huge line of boats, I don't know the total, but it was a lot. And they were all decked out for Christmas. Not a single picture I took turned out, all the lights are blurry so I won't bore you with horrible pictures, but here's the one they gave us from the Christmas ships parade website.

I asked if they had their Santas specially made for them, and found out they designed their Santa lights themselves using a basic picture from a coloring book. Somehow they made a digital grid and got it all put together. The lights are mounted on a mesh screen and it's all held together with PVC pipe.

Rita has everyone bring appetizers to share and they provide drinks. She says she enjoys having a nice intimate party with different people every night. And I can totally see why. It wasn't raining, but it was somewhat windy and nippy out, so the hot coffee sure was nice. I tried out a new recipe for a hot, cheesy spinach-artichoke dip. It was pretty darn good too.

Seriously, if that doesn't put you in the holiday spirit, then I don't know what will.