Village of Mackinaw Christ Parade Past

Our first real winter, living in Mackinaw, we were very anxious to become a part of this magical place and purposed not to miss anything despite major health issues. The weeks leading up to the Village Christmas Parade were so exciting as we prepared floats, practiced Christmas carols, made dozens and dozens of Christmas cookies, and prepared platters to be taken to all "service" personnel in our tiny winter village. It was a cold and wintry fall. Our Christmas tree was the top of a ceder fallen in or drive by a 75 mile/hr. November gale. The lake froze all the way to St. Ignace and the wild life would walked right up to our windows,morning,noon,and night. It was amazing and wildly wonderful to actually be sharing this wilderness with Gods animals. Back to the topic at hand,The Mackinaw City Christmas Parade. The plan was to have the event down Central Avenue with city trucks pulling the various "church",business and individual floats and end at Indian Pathways Park to place our home made Christmas ornaments on the village tree, light the tree, have a community Christmas sing,enjoy hot chocolate and coffee with the few die hard winter nesters of the frozen north. It was a very cold crisp night and I could not join the others on our float so Burton bundled me up and we left the house an hour early to be sure and get a good parking spot where I could view the festivities from the back of our SUV. The place was a true winter snow land with virgin snow on our huge 6 lane Central Ave. We choose the center "boat/RV parking lane to set up camp to wait for the show to begin. My husband is a saint and we patiently waited and waited and waited for the others to show up. After about 45 minuets we panicked and thought we had the wrong time, the wrong place the wrong... NO, I heard the sirens of the fire truck,the band playing and soon the parade appeared from Huron and Central in front of Sheplers Ferry Dock. In all the glamor and magnificence of a true Mackinaw City event the Christmas Parade proceeded west on Central Ave. past us. The carolers sang the cars were decorated, the horses pranced,the Village vehicles all followed in gleaming form. This was a beautiful parade that the Village of Mackinaw had just for us. You see WE were the only ones in the entire Village that were not in the parade. "And now you know the rest of the story"