The Nightmare before Christmas?

Saturday evening was the annual Santa's Light-Up parade in downtown Victoria. We were all really excited to go, and were looking forward to what I thought would be a wonderful time with our friends Greta, Jason and their kids Brenna and Tor. We got downtown early to attend the pre-parade party at our favourite bookstore, but I soon discovered that Dylan was not happy with the crowds. We had just sat down to hear a Christmas story when he started to SCREAM! Quickly got him out of there and we headed over the road to find a warm place just inside the Bay Centre to wait for the parade to begin. Met up with our friends and had an amusing time being photographed by some very enthusiastic, baby-loving Japanese tourists. The wind and rain kept blowing the doors to the mall open but we made the best of it. Dylan kept mentioning the "bubble car" and how it "maybe not be in that parade"... Didn't think much of it. "No, maybe it won't," I told him. Finally it came time for the parade to start and we headed outside into the blustery night. The crowd was so huge that Dylan and Brenna had to sit on shoulders to see anything. And they had to be wrapped up tight because they were shivering and basically freezing to death. What a fiasco. Suddenly a brightly lit train was coming down the road, bubbles blowing off it. The "bubble car!" Dylan had mentioned. Alan quickly grabbed Dylan up and pushed his way to the front so Dylan could get a really close look at it. Oh dear. Turns out Dylan had been really hoping the bubble train would NOT be in the parade and that's what he'd been trying to tell us (I guess he remembered it from a summer parade we went to in July) It was full of clowns and he freaked out! Apparently clowns terrify him (can't say I'm fond of them myself!). He was screaming and crying and insisting that we go home. He "no like them funny faces!" We went inside the mall to calm him down and then he was more than happy to ride the escalators with Daddy. Not exactly the festive evening I'd planned, but it turned out okay in the end...

The Sidney Santa Parade is next weekend. We'll try to get into the holiday spirit at that one. And we'll avoid the "bubble car" at all costs!
E