Christmas at The Islands

Our neighborhood is AWESOME. I mean, where else can you host a Christmas get-together in your backyard and have the evenings entertainment float by?

Every year, our neighbors get together with their spectacularly decked-out pontoon boats and cruise the lake, giving those of us with lake-front homes a gorgeous lighted Christmas boat parade. Our boat is not appropriate for this lake because it would have to be both electric and smaller, and so we couldn't participate in the parade, but I believe it was just as much fun to watch.

We invited our friends Suzi, Ivan and thier son G (who has the same name as my son, G) over to eat some grilled hotdogs, drink some eggnog, enjoy the parade and finally, visit with Santa at the Islands clubhouse.

Here are the boats, as they began their tour of our section of the lake:


I had a very difficult time getting good shots because there were several things working against me.

1. It was really dark that night. No light in the sky AT ALL. I wish the parade had started at least an hour sooner.

2. Since the boats were moving, I couldn't slow my shutter much without blurring everything to total obscurity.

3. Also, the boats were pretty far away, so I couldn't reach them with the flash.

Once they got closer to our yard, I started to experiment with slower shutter speeds and got some interesting shots like these:




These are our neighbors that live across the street, with their grandson at the front of the boat. Hi M!


A blurry shot of my kids, watching the boats go by and waiting for candy:


After the last boat motored past, we headed down to the park to see Santa!

Doesn't he look fantstic?

I was expecting a less-than-authentic looking version, but when we walked up to him Suzi and I looked at each other and said "He looks real!!!"

He let the kids test his beard:


I took at least 20 shots of Suzi's son sitting on Santa's lap. I'm not sure what they talked about, but it was a good, long conversation!


I also got a shot of G's friend, A:

My kids, who were being their usual camera-shy selves, would only sit NEXT to Santa, not on his lap, and only long enough to take one picture:


You can see the decorated homes in the background on the other side of the lake. I believe many of the lakehomes are more decked out in the back than the front:

And M, who was the most excited to go see Santa of all, who talked about it non-stop for weeks and weeks, wouldn't go anywhere near him. I was lucky to get this:


We stayed late enough to see Santa leave the park, but never did see any reindeer. Weird.


I think Deidre Garber, Islands Community Events Coordinator, did a fantastic job organizing the activities for the kids. I can't wait to participate in the next event!