December Duzzy

So, I didn't get a chance to blog in December at all. My wedding planning and job were kinda all consuming. I will blog more about that latter. Today, I wanted to blog about going to the Denton Tree Lighting Festival in the square.

It seems like every time Denton is hosting something in the square I find out about it as Anthony and I drive by on our way to an already scheduled event. And every time I get so super frustrated because I think I would really love to go do those things. They are free events and fun entertainment. What could be better? Every time we drive by, I think nothing could be greater and I vow that next time the square hosts an event, "We will be there!" Well, this conversation has gone on for several years, but in December 2010 I actually made it to the Tree Lighting Festival. Here is what happened:

Originally, I was planning on going with my then fiance, but he had to work late. His disappointment in missing these events is similar to the disappointment he feels when we forget to DVR the Bachelor--which really isn't disappointment at all. But I was not to be deterred! I invited Carrie, a sweet girl from my high school group at Church. She had no idea what I was dragging her into.

We met up at a coffee shop near the square. The only notable thing that happened there was that when we were leaving, she saw this guy from student ministries and starting waving at him. This guy hasn't the slightest idea who I am (I know, super disheartening that all the high school boys don't know me by name). It was like a good full minute of Carrie waving and this guy awkwardly starring at us trying to figure out who we were. He never did figure it out, but thankfully the parking lot was short, and we were able to pull away.

In my head, I knew exactly where we were going to park. This always happens. For example, the first day of college. I knew of exactly one parking lot at TWU where commuters where allowed to park. And in my head, that was where I was going to park. The lot had plenty of room; no big deal. Wrong! Not only was that lot full, but every lot I passed by as well. I ended up parking at the Denton Public Library and walking what felt like a mile to class. You would think I would learn my lesson about parking lots, but no. Same thing happened that night. We ended up parking in this grass lot forever away from the square. I wanted to be sure that I could find the car when we left, so I made sure I read the street name where we were at. "Elm, I told Carrie, "remember Elm."

We made it to the square just in time to watching Natalie, another sweet, talented girl in my small group, dance. Then we went Wassailing. Wassail is like hot cider. A few days earlier, I found out that most of the stores participate in a wassail contest. You get free wassail and then get to vote on your fav. It was a good thing that I did not know about this part of the Festival in years past because my disappointment in missing it would be tenfold.

So Carrie and I traveled around tasting wassail. I definitely burned my tongue quite severely on the first cup. We only sampled about four glasses. One can only have so many cups of wassail.

Fortunately we had ended back up on Elm, so I decided that we should just head back to the car. Well, we walked a really long ways in the cold and dark. Nothing looked really familiar, but I was positive that we had parked somewhere on Elm. To make a long story short, I apparently can't read. We had parked on Bell. I guess on got confused because both words were short and had the letters E and L. Whatever, I guess next time I will have to take a picture of the street sign.