happy new year!

Happy New Year, chickies! I hope it's been good for you so far. I know our Resident Dude Mark is down with pneumonia . . . I'm hoping the rest of you are hanging in there. (Get better soon, Mark!)

On New Year's Eve we had a fun family party at my sister's house (her in-laws were out visiting from New York, which includes our own suziebeezieland Bianca, who I have been so happy to see) and it was delightful.

I played Settlers of Catan with my husband, my brother-in-law, and my brother-in-law's brother (Bianca's husband) and they whooped me completely. But I have all year to plan my strategy for next time.

My strategy for next time includes "not losing so bad." 

But boy, that is a really fun game. Do any of you play it?

There was a staggering array of food, including chili and cornbread, banana-nut cake (killer -- I had two smallish pieces, which somehow seemed more polite than one gigantic piece, and really I just wanted to eat the icing off it in spoonfuls, it was so good) and some cheesy popovers and some little pups in wrappers with parmesan and some other things. I don't know what all, but we ate a lot.

New Years Day, Bob and Claire and I woke up bright and early and bundled up and put hot drinks in commuter mugs and went to the Rose Parade! We went and viewed the floats after the parade last year, but I haven't been to the actual parade since I was 16, and Bob has never been, and of course Claire hasn't, either.

It was a gorgeous day (we've had sunny skies all week) and it turns out we didn't really need to bundle up! 

All the people sitting in the bleachers around us were delightful (a bunch of Buckeye fans), and we just had a blast.

Let me make a few introductions before I show you parade highlights. First is "guy in red hat sitting in front of me." He and his wife were really nice.  His hat is featured in several of my photos.

Second is "big palm tree in front and slightly to the right of me".

I thought it looked pretty against the sky, even though some might have thought of it as a view-blocker. 

And then there were the ladies behind us, who were delightful.

One older woman was there because her grandson had bought her a ticket for Christmas. She was so excited. What a neat gift, huh? And she was a trooper, with a cane, hiking up the bleacher steps. We both agreed that being there in real life is much more fun than just watching on t.v.

And then the lady right behind me was from San Antonio, and had a really adorable accent, and was also really happy and excited, and thought we should stand up any time anything American came by, and I loved her. The woman next to her, who I think was her daughter, read the float descriptions from a magazine and that was just perfect, because I wanted to know stuff.  They were so fun, those ladies behind me.

The lady next to me and her husband were on vacation and had come down from northern California where they live up in the mountains, and we chatted quite a bit, too.  I want to live in whatever town they live in. It has 300 people in it, and sounds cool.

And then in front of me slightly to my right were these Buckeyes fans, who were great. They had a block of 60 tickets for the Rose Bowl itself. 

So I have to tell you Ohio girls right now that between this group and then then Guy in Red Hat and his wife in front of me, I didn't really get any photos of Ohio State stuff because they stood up and went crazy every time. It was so fun.

(But you know I'm a Ducks fan. Quack, quack, quack.)

What is that Ohio State cheer thingy, by the way? People kept doing it. They made an O with their arms and said something like "ooh oh" and then the other people yelled back "O-H-I-O" or something.

This church is the backdrop for most of my parade photos.

The parade theme this year was "2010: A Cut Above the Rest." Each float and band is supposed to interpret that theme in some way.

This year's Grand Marshall was Captain "Sully" Sullenberger. Man, we all went crazy cheering for him.

This parade major in the Farmers Insurance "Salute to the Bands" float was 55 feet tall, and so impressive. The parade was off to a really exciting start.

I'm not going to show you everything in the whole parade (there were 92 entries), just our favorites. But honestly, they're all really cool.

I'm sorry I don't have a zoom lens. Maybe I'll get one before next year's parade. :) I'm also sorry for the mediocreness of most of these photos. It was really sunny and I don't know what I'm doing with my camera when it's so sunny.

I don't think anybody marches as well as the Marines. They got a huge ovation.  And they looked sharp.

Here are our friends who had volunteered to be pooper scoopers. The crowds cheered the most for these guys. :) Our friend is a partner at Bob's law firm, and he and his son and son's friend were doing this as a fundraiser for the boys' high school.

The broadcast crews film the parade at the beginning of the five-and-a-half mile parade route, when everyone is fresh and the floats haven't started breaking down quite as much.

We were sitting in front of Pasadena City College, which is about halfway through the parade, I'd say, and were treated to two long breaks during the parade, followed by two towed floats. :) The Ronald McDonald House was the first one. Boy, you should have heard how loud we all cheered for the tow truck.

This is the Subway float. Do you see that guy waving at me? That's Jared Fogle! Doesn't he look nice and trim? I'm pretty sure he was waving at me to come eat sandwiches and get skinny.

Go, Navy!  We hear the flyovers every year, so it was exciting to see them this year.

I loved the Tuskeegee Airmen float. Fifteen of the original airmen were sitting on the front of the float. To give you an idea of what goes into making these floats, here's a description for this one:

To coincide with the patriotic theme of the float, tons of red and white carnations and roses, and blue iris, statice and delphiniums are used. The floragraphs will be created by using crushed sweet rice and onion seed. The eagle feathers are created from magnolia leaves, whole branches of millet, doc weed, pine cone scales, cotton seed, feather grass and pampas grass. The giant American flags made from red and white carnations, and blue statice and delphiniums. The "red tail" mustangs are covered in carnation petals, silver dollar eucalyptus, silver leaf, and poppy seed.

Red carnations 10,000
White carnations 5,000
White roses 6,000
Red roses 4,000
Blue iris 6,500

The backside of magnolia leaves used for the soft texture of feathers. Individual pine cone scales are used to create the veins in the eagle feathers. Rice paper is used to give the stars a translucent shine.

Here's our whole family's favorite float: Natural Balance Pet Foods. Do you remember the skateboarding dog last year? This year they had a few dogs, snowboarding! (There was no snow, but they were on snowboards.) I'm sad I didn't get a photo of the little puppy. A guy went down on the snowboard with him, but when they got to the bottom the puppy jumped off and ran back up the slope for more. It was adorable!

Here is the Los Angeles Unified School District All District High School Honor Band marching.

And here they are a couple seconds later, taking a little break to stretch. I always wondered if they got a break. They do! They looked pooped.

These girls on rollerblades were so mesmerizing that I wasn't paying attention to the Shaghai World Expo float behind them.

But then all of a sudden, there was Jackie Chan!

Puffer fishies.

You should have heard the wild hullaballoo for the Boy Scouts at the end of the parade. Everybody went crazy!

We're already planning next year's trip to the parade. It was awesome. :)

Happy New Year, ladies! xxoo