My Sister Made Me Do It....

That is my sister, Terri, on the right.

Every year I DRAG, PULL, LIE, SNIFFLE and CRY to get her to be in the Chritmas Parade as a character (not that she isn't already a character without the costume).

This is our 4th year to participate in this DAY LONG EVENT. (Year 1, we were the INCREDIBLES.....SPANDEX and MY BODY do NOT make a PRETTY SITE; Year 2, we were Cookie Monster and Big Bird....NO WAY are we going to have BIG HEADS again....TOO HOT!!!; Year 3 and 4, we were Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum....we had a total of 5 people actually know who we were....most thought we were TWO of the THREE pigs....we eventually just told them that the wolf got the third pig...ba haaaaaa)

We start at 8:00 in the morning....and did I mention that she lives about 45 minutes away....so, for her, it starts about 45 minutes before me...tee heeee.

We meet at city hall to start getting dressed.....well, this year....we are Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum....she Dee, me Dum.

When we arrived this morning, we discovered that since last year (we were the same characters last year) that Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum secretly had GASTRIC BYPASS SURGERY....SEE THE ABOVE PICTURE!

For some reason, the hoops that go into the costume WERE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND!!!

So, we spent the next hour rushing to the local ACE HARDWARE and had our own HANDY MAN fashion us hoops for the costumes. The hoops won't just fit into the costumes, we have to "tack" them in....so, that was another battle. Thank goodness, Minnie Mouse brought her extra heavy RED thread.

Minnie spent most of the morning sewing cute Santa hats onto several characters.....notice the BISON with the cute hat!!!

Oh, and that is Regan, this is her 2nd year to HELLO KITTY.....now don't just say the name, you must say it like HELLO MOTO.....sounds way cooler.

Once all wardrobe malfunctions are fixed....ssssssssscccreeech....well, not ALL....Mickey seemed to of had too much turkey at Thanksgiving and completely split out the front of his pants. Of course this wasn't noticed until after traveling to TWO schools and parading around in front of the children......hopefully no permanent damage was done in the parading of Mickey Mouse with his FLY OPEN!!!
Mickey is played by Miss Janie...she is the one who goes through the complete madness of gathering us all together to do this each year. She gathers the costumes, calls the people, begs, pleads, and brides most of us.

She buys us bottled water, feeds us lunch at Pizza Hut, and makes sure she has GERM-X, plus carries MINTS AND GUM.

Do you realize how many children love to pick their nose right before SHAKING YOUR HAND?

OK, we are loaded on the bus and heading for the schools.....we hit every elementary school, daycare and even the nursing home to promote the Christmas parade.....all between 8:00 a.m. and 2:15 p.m. We also distribute small bags of candy to every child....and sometimes a pitiful teacher who looks like she is about to cry....

Using her creativity to cover up the open fly incident.....tie a scarf around you and then you sort of look like a pirate Mickey.

Here we are at a private school.....this is one where we are NOT ALLOWED to take off our heads (to breathe) for fear we might traumatize a wee one because they may think we are REAL!!! Do you know how hot it gets in these things? This school used to serve us hot cider, homemade cookies.....ahhhh the smell when we entered was so delightful. This year, they just gave us bottled water and wished us well....lol.

OK, we found our hoops and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum have been saved!!!
This is soon to be married Carly...AKA Chipmunk!!!

Hello Kitty....did you say it correctly?

Here are Kyle and Rachel....this is their 2nd year also.

This is Kim, you can see her blog HERE. She is the mom of Cat in the Hat and Gingerbread Man.

This is Sully, aka Larry. He is our bus driver....and VERY ORNERY!!!

He is also a member of city council.

I have NO IDEA why these two seem to be the most popular......

Poor BLUE, that costume has absolutely NO WAY of seeing out of it.

See that big snout....well, the eye/breathing hole is UNDER it.....whoever wears that thing has to have a constant companion to guide them.

The two ducks took it upon themselves to be Blue's guide.....now, I can't really say whether that was a good thing or not....

See Blue standing all alone? Well, we are all on the stage and poor Blue was told to just stand there....there is poor Blue all alone......so sad.

Then THE DUCKS made poor Blue step up and over imaginary steps all day....even duck through imaginary doors!!! So much to the point that when they told her to sit on a stool, she almost sat on the floor......

Who are THE DUCKS you say?

Here are THE DUCKS.....can't you just see the meanness in them?

Yeah, don't let those glamorous smiles fool you.....there is pure EVIL in those costumes....yep, pure EVIL.

Seriously, this is Debbie and Denise...they've been THE DUCKS for about 10 years.....they have to do SOMETHING to keep themselves entertained. This year, it was with BLUE.

Oh, and should I mention that Miss Paula, AKA Blue, was the GRAND MARSHAL of the parade? Boy, do they know how to pick 'em.

When we are done parading to the schools, we go home and rest for about an hour and then it is time for the ACTUAL PARADE.....where the temperature was about 34 degrees. We walk and meet all the children who ask us if we remember them from the school....of course WE REMEMBER THEM, HOW COULD WE FORGET THEM!!!