Tonight was the first day of Christmas Prelude in Kennebunkport. This is the second most popular Christmas event in America according to HGTV.

It’s a gathering of mostly adults who drink their way thru town over 2.5 days. When I worked at David’s it was a disaster. Summer numbers with winter staff I liked to say. More drunk people than you can count.

Being out of the middle of town created a very different, much better experience.

Except.

For some unknown reason the Prelude folks decided to host a block party tonight. And closed the road that connects Kennebunk to Kennebunkport. For 2 hours. Four with set up and breakdown.

This was probably super awesome for people staying in the lower village with nowhere to go.

It was not awesome for everyone else.

Why you ask?

Because it closed direct access for anyone going to the other side of town via car.

Say for example if you’re driving to my restaurant from Ogunquit, Wells, or say even Kennebunk.

At least 15 reservations showed up late tonight because they followed their GPS that took them through the middle of town. Except they got to Kennebunk and found the road closed.

Suddenly they were late.

You’d think this would be the worst.

But the worst was the Smiths.

They checked into their hotel. They went to the various events. Then around 7:00 started getting ready to leave for their 8:00 reservation at my restaurant.

Only it was then discovered that their car was trapped in the parking lot. They were told by the police, the fire department, the city works folks that there was no way they could move their car. Not till 9:00.

You’d think someone might have mentioned this but nope.

They called us several times asking for help which we could not do. I spoke to them the last time and told them that if they got to the restaurant by 8:30 we’d feed them.

They finally arrived.

Turns out they’d walked 45 minutes in 20* weather to get a car from a friend, then six of them squished, and they arrived frozen, grumpy, hungry, and annoyed.

Turns out by the time they arrived I’d moved them to the chefs table to make room for another party.

I was worried they’d be upset.

But.

This could not have made them happier.

Views of the kitchen. 30 feet from 15 feet of fire. They were warm in 10 minutes.

They kept calling me over to tell me how wonderful we’d made them feel. How special the night ended up. And how they couldn’t wait to come back.

All ended up well, but seriously don’t close the roads when it’s the only way to get where you are going.