~Charlene's Web~

Sunshine, Laughter And Friends Are Always Welcome!

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Location: Ontario, Canada

I'm happily married to Mr. Man. We have 2 daughters, Big R and Little R. I'm a stay at home mom. We moved from the big city to the country, living a dream. I'm a collector and a packrat. I'd rather read a book than watch a movie. I battle depression. I love life, but that wasn't always the case. This is my journal.

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Saturday, November 18, 2006

Santa Claus Parade

Good evening.
Yesterday I mentioned the pageant at the Town Hall and that I hadn't heard anything about one taking place this year. Later, when I picked up the mail, there it was, the bright green flyer. The ex-Mayor and his cohorts will be entertaining us again this year. It seems to me the cost of the tickets went up too lol. I believe they were $3 last year and are $5 this year. I wonder if it will be a better show.
Today was the Orangeville Santa Claus Parade. We brought the dog for the first time. I always want to bring him and Hubby disagrees, I acquiese to him and then we get there and there are hundreds of dogs there, so I say "see, I told you so, everyone brings their dogs!" So this time he agreed to bring the dog. The poor guy...lol, the dog that is.
The parade features police and fire vehicles and they woot woot with the sirens and obviously Bear isn't used to hearing sirens. Then you have the marching bands with the big bass drums and bagpipes etc. And of course all the animals. There were horses of all sizes, dogs of all sizes and even a couple of reindeer. Not to mention all the other hundreds of pet dogs watching the parade. He just didn't know what was going on. It was quite cold out there too and I think he was cold. He started out happy and excited but ended up trembling with his tail between his legs. He barked once, at one particular dog, who was walking with the SPCA float. This evening he is crying out in pain when he moves. I think he has arthritis.
As is one of our little family traditions, after the parade we come home and start putting up our Christmas lights. I don't really care how much energy those new LED lights save, I hate them. They just aren't the same. They aren't Christmassy at all. The colours are off. They aren't bright enough. The blue is super bright, jumps out at you, and the green is pretty much invisible. The others are just blah. At one point I told Hubby, the new lights will be yard sale items next summer, and he said "no way, you just need to get used to them." Once we were done and we walked out to have a look from the street, he agreed. I think the problem is that we got the multi-coloured ones. I could see them looking better if they were all one colour, maybe. Surprisingly, he then agreed to hang old-fashioned, energy sucking, outdoor lights around the trailer sitting in the driveway, to add that touch of redneck class...and that it does.
The parade itself was pretty good as always. The floats are always creative. I'm guessing the theme this year was "A Country Christmas". We saw a few people we know in it which is fun. I took a picture of almost every float and every band etc. I'll post a few here...my favourites...






















These photos don't do justice. Not sure why they look so far away, didn't look that way in the camera when I was taking them. There are a lot of details you just can't see. The one with the snowmen was cool, there were actually people in some of the snowmen waving their stick arms and dancing around. The guy in the one-horse open sleigh was our Mayor, he's the guy behind the Christmas Pageant, and has now moved up the food chain to become the Warden of Dufferin County.
There were displays from all types of businesses and organizations, including the food bank, and damned if we didn't forget about it this year. Last year we had a bag of food to give them, but forgot to bring it, left it sitting at home by the front door, ready to go. This time we just completely forgot about it. I felt like such a shmuck when they walked by with their nearly empty shopping carts. Oh well, we'll just have to take extra when the school has their collection for it.
It was a good day.
I'm relaxing by the fire, watching the weeks worth of The Y&R on SoapNet.
Think I'll play some euchre now.
Have a fabulous evening.
XOXOXO

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