I Suck At Parades

Yesterday, Quincy had its annual Christmas parade. The city of Quincy annually has a Christmas parade the Sunday after Thanksgiving. And for anyone who knows me, they know that I am not a big fan of parades. In fact, I suck at parades.

I try to avoid parades as much as I can. Unfortunately, this year the baby clause took effect. Karen was going to bring our baby daughter (Briana) to this year's Christmas parade in Quincy whether I attended or not. Karen, after all, loves parades.

Naturally, I did not want to miss my daughter's first parade. And so, I begrudgingly attended. Besides, I think Karen's mother was looking forward to seeing us for the parade. Granted, she was probably looking forward to seeing Briana more than us. Karen and I just happened to be the means of transportation in getting Briana down to Quincy.

Needless to say, it was an interesting parade. Joining our little group of parade watchers were Karen's mother, our friends (Jen, Bill, Carlos, and Hot Amy), my BFF (Kerry), Hot Amy's fiance (Mark), and Jen and Bill's parents. For me, the best part of the parade were the bagpipers (because I seem to like all things Irish) and the majestic clydesdale horses.

Karen seems to think that Briana enjoyed the parade a lot. For awhile, Briana was bouncing up and down on Karen's lap watching the parade. I, of course, disagreed with Karen because shortly thereafter Briana ended up falling asleep on my lap during the parade... despite the loud sirens and whatnot. So the verdict is still out on Briana's stance on parades.

It was also good to see Jen, Bill, Carlos and Hot Amy. Wake aside, I had not seen any of them in quite a long time. So it was nice to see them again.

Speaking of Jen and Bill, following the parade we headed back to their place for a cookie swap. I have never done a cookie swap before. As it turns out, neither had Karen. Luckily, I had enough time on Sunday morning to bake some cookies. Based on the available ingredients that I had in the house, I ended up making soft raisin cookies. And thanks to the internet, I got the recipe online.

It was actually fun to bake the cookies. I actually do like to bake. I just never have a particular reason to bake. Thankfully, Jen came up with the idea this year. Granted, my baking is not as good as my friend (Kelley), whose chocolate chip cookies I absolutely love.

Interestingly enough, Kelley and my friend (Marc) did stop by Jen and Bill's. Sadly, there were no chocolate chip cookies from Kelley. I think the cookie swap was a fun idea. I suppose it's not surprising since I also enjoy the idea of potlucks.

Anyway, it was good to hang out after the parade and catch up on things. And I can successfully say that I sampled all of the cookies. Sure, I was quite full afterwards, but I sampled them all nonetheless.

Later that night, Karen and I did something that we have not done in awhile. We watched a movie together. That movie: Leap Year.

(The video below is a trailer for Leap Year.)


The movie, starring Amy Adams, is a romantic comedy about a woman who travels to Ireland to propose to her boyfriend on leap day (February 29). Apparently, there is an Irish tradition whereby a man must accept a wedding proposal when asked on leap day. Needless to say, her plans go awry.

Although Karen had already seen the movie before, I figured that the movie would be a good date night movie to watch together. And naturally, because I like all things Irish, I figured the movie could not be all that bad. And truth be told, I did enjoy the movie despite the predictability. All in all, it was a good way to end the night.