Gaston Christmas parade 2005

Today was the annual Gaston Christmas parade and it was great! There were TONS of entries. It is great for a town the size of Gaston to have such a long parade. There were also tons of people that came out to watch. The Swansea band didn't attend the Collard Festival parade but they were there for the Christmas parade and they looked and sounded great. Of course for me the best part of the parade was Swansea's JROTC. Brittanie and Josh Titus switched off calling cadences along the parade route. So I got to see and hear Brittanie leading the cadets in "everywhere we go....people want to know....." She did a great job. Actually, all of the cadets did a great job. Our color guard was very impressive. Those flags are huge and heavy and they carried them like seasoned soldiers. It was great.

It was also nice to see Sheriff Metts in our parade. He has had health problems and it was great to see him riding in our parade, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, and throwing out candy.

Katie especially loved the parade. We were almost at the end of the parade route but there was still plenty of candy flying our way. She was having a blast. She squealed/screamed with delight everytime it would rain candy down around her. We came home with half a shopping bag of candy....and good brand name candy. Katie wanted to hold the bag with one hand and pick up candy with the other but the bag became too heavy for her. She even had some sweet people a little ways from us who were picking up candy and giving it to her. She never forgot to say thank you everytime they gave her candy.

We had a very good time.

Here is Brittanie calling cadences. It is blurry because I was struggling to get it focused and they kept moving and the sun was in my eyes. But you can see Brittanie with her mouth wide open. This is a great shot. This is how she looks all the time around the house. hehehe

I managed to get it clear and focused. Unfortunately, they were walking away. But you can see our banner and color guard in this picture so I wanted to post it anyway.