The Parade

I have to share a success story. I’m still a little unsure how I was able to defuse John and myself and ended up having an enjoyable evening. But, it was quite enjoyable after all.

Each year, we drive to a nearby community, about an hour away from us for their annual holiday parade. This year was no exception. We figured with our face coverings and it being outdoors that it would be pretty safe to go.

I looked up the start time for the parade, which was listed as 6 pm, starting with a fireworks show, immediately followed by the parade, with Santa making an appearance. John made sure to take an early nap so we could leave the house with enough time to get there, get parked, and find a place to stand on the parade route.

All was going along as planned and it looked like we were even going to be a little early until we saw fireworks starting when we were still a few miles away. By this point, we were coming into town with the speed limit dropping and multiple slow moving vehicles in front of us. There was no pushing the speed to pick up the pace, which only added to the stress. Eva was sleeping in her car seat. John began to fume and vent about the city offices getting a piece of his mind later and angrily figuring out how we were going to break it to our 5 year old that we’d missed the fireworks and maybe the parade too.

I realized we had no control over the situation. We were on time, per directions about the event in the local newspaper. We couldn’t do anything about the early start. We couldn’t do anything about much of it other than try to make the most of it all. I put my hand on John’s leg and soothed him by telling him that it was all okay and not worth getting upset over. That even Eva would be fine. It would be a bummer but a good lesson for her that we can’t always get what we want even when we do our best. Somehow this worked for John. I do this other times and it doesn’t always help. He began to relax by a degree.

I woke Eva up and adjusted my seat so she could watch the fireworks. We were also able to tell her the situation. She responded really well, just accepting it. We got parked as quickly as we could and ran to the parade route. The parade was already going but we caught it enough to get some really awesome goodies, candy, and to see Santa.

We were there a very short amount of time but Eva had a great time, John was able to chat with the local law enforcement (something he always does if there’s a cop around), and we didn’t get cold. We couldn’t get to the nearby fast food place we typically go to afterwards because of the crowds so jumped back into the car and drove back to our town and went to a local place near us that just reopened after a remodel. Eva was excited about this because it’s one of her favorite places and we hadn’t been able to go for a few months.

Overall the evening ended up being really fun and we all had a good time. Talk about making lemonade out of lemons. I’m not sure why my calming techniques worked this time. I think maybe it was in part because I didn’t let myself get stressed out about it, which I typically do because I really dislike being late or rushed. Typically, John has to deal with his feeling like he’s always the one making us late, plus my feelings of being let down. And, Eva didn’t get upset about it either. Maybe that had something to do with it.