Christmas Walk Weekend

Our town has an annual event called the Christmas Walk, which is basically an elaborate ploy to lure shoppers into town. Over the course of a weekend, there are sales and raffles at the various shops and events like horse-drawn carriage rides, face painting for the kids, and holiday carolers.

And, since this is New England and coastal New England at that, Santa arrives by lobsterboat to greet the throngs of children.

We decided to skip that mob scene, and instead enjoyed the tiniest Christmas parade in the history of Christmas parades. It is actually perfect for very little kids, like ours, who have no attention spans to speak of and freeze easily outdoors after too long.

Behold, the highlights:


Now my favorite part of the Christmas Walk is filling up on all the free snacks that the shops have put out. And since we live in a ritzy, yacht-club kind of town, these aren't your usual chips and dips type snacks. Oh, no.

There were huge platters of cheese and crackers, complete with grapes and little deli slices. Plates of chocolate truffles, chocolate-dipped cookies, and stamped gourmet chocolates. Dishes of cashews, platters of brownies, cake stands covered with coconut-topped cupcakes. And lest your mouth get dry from all the delicious goodness, there was apple cider, cranberry cider, and mini water bottles. And did I mention the wine? Red wine, white wine, Prosecco, Champagne... I was actually sad that I don't like wine because there was just SO much free wine to be had! Such a waste!

And my favorite store (which under normal circumstances gives away enough free samples as to constitute lunch) had outdone themselves. They had invited a bunch of their local vendors to give away samples. So in addition to their usual spread, there was pie, ice cream, cookies, and my absolute favorite candy, Sweet Sloops.

All in all, it was a fine, fattening start to this holiday season.

**And if you read the Bee Girl story but did not yet see that it has been updated with a picture (!!!) then get back there right now and check it out already!
---