Until one day, when Santa magically placed an email in my inbox, from none other than my lovely, darling boyfriend. His boss had told him about a holiday boat parade that went from Lake Washington to Lake Union, the two large lakes in the middle of Seattle that connect and then meander out to Puget Sound. All the boat owners that moored their boats in the lakes lit them up and joined in a procession led by one large boat, which played Christmas music and had a children’s choir that sang on board. Great Rudolph’s Red Nose! This was it! I just knew it! The Christmas Boat! It sounded perfect, so I got to work planning away on what I knew would be the beginning of our great Christmas tradition.
I planned a dinner. I planned an outfit. I planned a route to the park where we would watch the parade. I planned the holiday tune CD to listen to on the way to the parade. I left no detail unplanned because I wanted to make sure—by all means—that this tradition would happen. And my Holiday Mister, well, he joined in on the fun too. Instead of just humoring me, he decided to play along. Together we anticipated the day almost as much as a couple of seven year-olds that had been promised new bikes for Christmas.
The day of the Christmas Boat Parade came only a few days before Christmas, and it was more magical than I could’ve imagined. (Insert happy sigh here.) We both made a fantastic dinner, all color-coordinated red and green (did I mention I love holidays?), lit evergreen-scented candles, turned on my meticulously made holiday soundtrack and had our first holiday dinner. Then, all bundled up, in the cold, drizzly Seattle night, we made our way to Gasworks Park to watch the Christmas Boat Parade. We didn’t realize that the rest of Seattle had also discovered the Christmas Boat Parade too, because there was a crowd of nearly a thousand people gathered. Starbucks had set up a tent and was handing out free cups of coffee. The boats with all their dazzling red and green lights had just begun to peak around the corner of the lake and come into view. It was happening! Our holiday tradition was happening! And it was fantastic. I was so overcome with excitement I started singing, “O Christmas Boat, O Christmas Boat, how lovely are your lights.” (I extended the lights part to go with the tune, of course.) The lake was awash in holiday spirit. Hundreds of boats were framed with red, green, white, and multicolored twinkling lights. I squeezed the hand of my holiday Mister and kept singing the “O Christmas Boat” song over and over.
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