So I made this totally functional advent calendar (I’ve been looking to purchase one for two years and have yet to find one that meets my expectations, but that’s another story) and filled each day with two chocolates and a note on which was written a holiday activity to do that day. I was particularly excited about this last weekend as we had 2 parades and a Christmas pageant to attend.

We didn’t make it to a single one.

On Friday we were to attend Pensacola Beach’s lighted boat parade. It was a drizzly night so we bundled Jack up in his snowman suit and headed to the beach. We arrived 15 minutes after the parade was supposed to start, and it was already over. Instead, we stuck around the boardwalk and had dinner and looked at all of the lights. Garth and I had mushroom burgers. Jack had bananas and lettuce. He does not like lettuce.

Saturday was the Christmas parade downtown and we’ve gone the last two years and loved it! We got Jack into his costume again and walked at a very brisk pace through the slight drizzle to the best corner for catching all of the parade loot, but it was traffic as usual. Apparently the parade had been cancelled earlier in the afternoon, and we would have known that had we made it a habit to listen to the radio or watch tv. We wandered around downtown instead. Pensacola has a charming little downtown. Mr Jack slept the whole time.

Sunday was the day we meant to attend a Christmas Pageant put on by a local baptist church. The plan, when we headed out the door after church, was to run up to the church office (Garth is the clerk for our branch and generally has some work to do after church), sprint to the pageant, then meander to our friends’ house for their cookie swap. We were still at the church office when the pageant started. So we wandered around downtown in the amazing fog and took photos on our way to the gazillion cookie evening.

This is my long way of saying that sometimes that best things that happen to you are unplanned. I always like to have a plan- because the plan gets me out the door (I would have missed the glorious thick fog on the pier had we been pageanting as planned!), but it is so good to meander and let adventure dictate the next step. As long as we’re home by 7.

lots of 9-month-old-baby-open-mouth-kisses,
elle

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