Why am I just now discovering such goodness!

As a Protestant raised in the North (northern part of Mississippi), I was never introduced to the culture of Mardi Gras. So naturally, when we moved to Mobile (the true home of Mardi Gras), I didn't really get into it, didn't understand it. Which is so sad because IT ROCKS!

Not only are all schools closed for this "holiday" but apparently you come home from parades with buckets of free goodies. See below.

Caleb and I attended our first parade last night. It was the parade of the Infinite Mystics... whatever that means. Who cares. It was awesome.

This is one of the ten floats. They are all pretty majestic. Sorry the picture is blurry but there was a lot of commotion. I will say that one thing I didn't realize was how HARD they throw stuff at you! They don't whimsically toss beads and whatnot into the air. They HURL it at your face. Yes, that is right: masked men on parade floats hurl entire boxes of Little Debbie snacks at your face.

You come home with the oddest assortment of goodies. Like this Elmo coloring book, for instance. That coloring book was hurled at us from on high and Caleb caught it. Good thing.
I thought they only threw beads. Before the parade, our friends in our group were like, "no they throw moonpies too!" So I got really excited about that. But then apparently they throw the entire box of goodies at you, which is terrific! I love free food! Look at all that!
More than once, a masked man would just dump his bag's entire contents on us. We're talking HUNDREDS of moonpies or HUNDREDS of pieces of candy. It is so awesome! Kids actually bring these little rakes and they RAKE all this candy into duffel bags. You can bring home some major loot while toting a rake. I will have a rake next year no doubt.

I love Mardis Gras!