Thursday was the Russellville parade. I've been told it's the largest in the state, and I don't doubt it. The crowds are large and the parade goes on for quite some time. They changed the parade route a few years back so that it doesn't go past my office, unfortunately, but over by the old junior high school. Thankfully, that's on our side of town and we can use some back roads to find a place to park and go stake out a spot.
For the 6:30 parade, we got there probably about 5:45. We brought our chairs and our blankets, as it was pretty close to freezing. (It would get below freezing later in the night, and last night it was 18. How strange is that for Arkansas?)
With the kids now, the problem is keeping them still while we sit inches from one of the main streets as traffic is still going. They don't block off the road until closer to 6:15, so until then cars are whooshing by. Benjamin is old enough now that he will stay pretty still, but we had to make sure to keep Sarah in Meron's lap to make sure she didn't scramble the wrong way.
My mistake for the parade happened earlier in the day, when I went and purchased a Route 44 drink from Sonic during Happy Hour. (Honestly, you have to love half price drinks, right?) Anyway, that all hit my bladder about two minutes before the parade was going to start. So I spent the hour dancing around and hoping the parade would end!
There were a number of good floats this year, and there seemed to be a minimum of trash trucks and other vehicles with a few lights on them to make them Christmasy. Of course the emergency vehicles were in the parade as were the classic cars. Can't have a parade without them! All in all, though, it was a good parade, capped off with Santa on top of the fire truck.
Last night, we had our annual office Christmas dinner. For many years, my parents had it out at their house, but the last three years they've held it at the old Tyson Management Center out by the nuclear plant. It's been refurbished and redone into a very nice meeting center that caters a good meal.
This year, it was tortilla encrusted tilapia and prime rib for the choices. I had both and thought they were very tasty. Unfortunately, my years of living with a cook who doesn't do red meat means that sometimes eating a large quantity of it doesn't always agree with me. That prime rib and I went rounds when I got home!
For dessert, we had creme brulee. Now, my coworker Chris loves the creme brulee. He first had it when we were out in Arizona four years ago and can't stop talking about it. Two years ago, in our first party out there, they served that for dessert, so he was quite disappointed when they didn't last year.
This year, as everyone is arriving and milling around, I notice that they already have the creme brulee on the tables, even though we've not had any of the meal yet. Another coworker notices this as well, but Chris is off talking and has no idea. So we took all the creme brulee from his side of the table and hid them.
He goes through the whole meal without noticing. He doesn't notice that Meron and I, after our meal, are eating something for dessert. However, that coworker comes over with hers and he says, "What are you eating? Where'd you get that?" We tried to tell him that they ran out, but he wasn't to be denied, trying to sniff it out wherever he could. Finally, we gave his back to him. I think he only had his and his wife's, though people kept bringing him extra ones or leftovers.
The holiday traditions are always fun, aren't they?
No comments:
Post a Comment