OKEECHOBEE — There were dozens of boats sparsely populated with first-time Yatchette Christmas Boat Parade participants and seasoned elders out on Taylor Creek on the beautiful Saturday evening of Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020.

Even in this strange and ominous year, dozens of boaters lined up near the State Road 70 bridge in time aplenty to enjoy watching the skies darken and seeing a spectacular sunset tailor-made to brightly and joyfully light up the end of a quite abnormal year. This was an effort to stick with a more-resembling-normal holiday season and Christmas week for Okeechobee residents.

Light from the bright near-conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn smiled from a million miles afar upon the stargazers.

Paraders with kids enthralled, partiers reveling and spectators watching onshore added camaraderie, food, music, laughter and abundant jolly fun. There was warmth as though issuing from a hearth in the frozen North.

It was contagious — a feeling that seemed to magically manifest the kids inside us all. And it was definitely 5 o’clock here.

Just after 6 p.m. as daylight crept to dusk, the sun sank into the swamps and the sheriff’s vessel sidled to the front of the line, blowing an air horn to let everyone know: Time to fire up all the lights, every single one, and gently start their engines to glide into the sunset and moonrise.

Losing track of time, waving to countless onlookers, wending our ways down the swollen creek back home under a starry, starry sky ... stuff of dreams fulfilled for a former Midwesterner, or anybody whosoever.

This will be one of the memorable Christmases for many of us, each, in his and her own way.