VP Madness, The Christmas Eve I want to Remember
Last night when I got home I was evaluating if I wanted to go ride around Victoria Park or wait until Thursday night. Trying to do it Christmas Eve would have been suicidal, or so I thought. The temp last night was chilly, about 60 but was only forecast to be colder on subsequent days so I concluded I needed to do it last night, if I was going to do it all. I threw my camera gear, Z10 and helmet in the truck and headed there around 6:45 or so. I had heard from others that went to VP on a weeknight last week it was crowded as hell. I hoped I could avoid the same situation.
I parked at the same spot as I always do by a nearby shopping center, somewhere around a mile away from the development. As I approached the first of two entrances there was a solid line of cars that started to spill out onto the main roadway, I knew what I was in for.
The hundreds of cars made navigation on the Z10 treacherous. I kept my head on a swivel as I alternated between road, sidewalk and grass as Victoria Park has a number of narrow streets with no sidewalk. With it being that busy it wasn’t easy for me to take in everything as fully as I would have liked as maintaining my safety was the primary concern. As is normally the case I got a lot of comments on what I was riding. I also had a bunch of cute kids hanging out windows wishing me Merry Christmas, which warmed my heart, despite the chilly air. There were also a ton of residents out in the yard hanging out around fire pits. I think living there would be sort of awesome, it seems like such a special community.
I get lost circling in there and I doubt I saw everything. In total I spent maybe an hour taking everything in. It is sort of visual overload, almost every single house has an impressive display. They all sort of blur together after awhile. When I finally left, the line of cars waiting to get into VP had swelled tremendously, easily stretching a half mile or more onto Airport Road. I had been there before when it was busy, but I don’t recall THIS level, maybe my memory just is not clear. As I pulled back into the driveway I was at least glad I made the effort to go see the Xmas lights, even if it was my first time ever doing it solo.
I know I have talked about this before, multiple times. Whenever Christmas rolls around my mind always drifts back to my favorite memories, especially Christmas Eve. I am guesstimating I was somewhere around 10 or 11. On Christmas Eve my mom would make a big meal for the family, it was all family on my Mom’s side. It would include my grandfather, grandmother, great grandmother, great aunt, and my Uncle Randy as the core group. I seem to remember there was a couple years where my cousins, Steve and Jen, uncle Butch and aunt Stephanie were part of it as well, I may be wrong about that.
Anyway despite my general avoidance of formal sit down meal situations as an adult, I hold onto the feelings and memories of sitting around that large octagon shaped table with my family. We also would normally score a few simple presents that night that felt like a warm up for the big day. As I grew older and moved into adulthood there have been tons of memorable Christmas holidays. Although of course the scenarios were much different I still appreciated them all, but none as much as those days, four and a half decades ago when life was simple, clean, and full of wonder. Unfortunately I am not expecting much magic out of my 2021 version of Christmas but hopefully it gives me something to move upward from in years to come. If you are reading this, I appreciate you, and I hope you have a great holiday. I will see you on the other side, peace.