Oh, yes, the Newport Harbor boat parade! Back when we lived in Irvine, we used to own a sailboat that we kept in Newport Harbor, and every year we'd deck it all out in Christmas lights and participate in the parade. Wow, that brings back memories.

I actually met my husband Charlie on Newport Harbor, on a sailboat. It was a blind date, a friend of mine was dating a friend of his, and we made arrangements to go out on Charlie's parent's sailboat, with him and his friend, for an evening sail. They brought the sailboat into the guest slip at the Ancient Mariner restaurant and picked us up there. I'll never forget watching this tall, handsome man standing at the bow of this sailboat as they pulled into the slip. I turned to my friend and said, "Vicki, I'm going to marry that guy." Exactly three years to the day later, I did. That was back in 1981.

We got our own sailboat a few years later, and did the Christmas parade thing every year until we sold our boat and then moved up to Thousand Oaks in 1998. I would make up trays of appetizers and serve Baileys on the rocks, and we'd invite a bunch of friends to go out with us. We'd sit on the bow all bundled up and watch all the other lit-up boats bopping around the harbor, all waving at each other as we passed.

Wow, thanks for the little sail through memory lane!