The End of Carnival

Carnival ends in, let's see, 68 minutes, with the official >incomprehensible Dutch word which has something in it about burning something< ceremony. I expect to give it a miss, as freezing my ass off in the company of a lot of people who have been drunk for four days doesn't really appeal. Even if it does involve burning something up.

The Children's Carnival Parade was today. At least one of my children won a prize for his/their costume. Here's how this works: the official prize givers are on the float of Young Prince Carnival. They give you a little card which says which prize you won; you hang it around your neck for the rest of the parade. Then you go to the center of town, where Young Prince Carnival's Court is being held (complete with throne and courtiers) and find the jester. You show him your card and get your prize. This is, I hear, because some children would like to have trumpets blown and songs sung and the chance to approach the throne and receive their boon from the Prince; other children might have a nervous breakdown. So the jester makes this call from talking to the child when they come for the prize.

So anyway, the guy on the float motioned for one of my children to come over. Both of them took a step backward. Neither of my sons is likely to walk up to a stranger on a moving float which involves animated thingamajiggies at their eye level and who knows what all simply because he motioned them over. Au contraire. So their grandmother, who actually knew what was going on, went up to the float and asked which child had won. He said "The one with the cap, the one in the (implied, formal) jacket," and the float was gone. Unhappily, I have one in a cap and the other in a formal jacket.

So when we went to the Court and found the jester, we explained the problem. The jester looked at my sons, who were by now holding hands and both looking very nervous. My older son said, "But it's Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket," to which the jester replied, "I think you are right, I think you both won," and pulled out the prize and explained that they were to share it since neither costume worked without the other. It was quite a haul, that prize, there was plenty to go around. There was a silly hat in the shape of a rat (girl prize winners got a monkey) and a huge sack of candy and pens from Carnival and confetti (which I just swept out of the house) and streamers (ditto) and a medal in the shape of a jester's head and all kinds of stuff.

So it all worked out rather well. Otherwise, Nel and I danced to stupid oompah music and did the twist in the middle of the street and marched in the parade and otherwise acted up in public as is required for Carnival. My sons objected to our antics and Daan threatened to put us in time out because Nel and I went marching in perfect tempo between the rows of the marching band, only in the reverse direction, with very serious faces.

Nel's been waiting to have me to play with for years, y'all, just years. Her sons are as boring as mine are, they just want to stand around and look pretty. Though at least my sons will still dance with me.