I Love A Christmas Parade

Whew, am I beat! I've had an incredibly long day.

I slept a little longer than I thought I would, but I figured it would be ok. I took my time eating my eggs and pumpkin muffin and heading to the PNC bank to deposit my paycheck. After all, how long could the Collingswood Christmas Parade last? It was just a little local parade.

A lot longer than I figured, as I discovered when I arrived in Collingswood. I heard drums in Knight Park long before I rode up to Collings Avenue. There were already tons of people walking over to Haddon Avenue. The streets were lined with cars that couldn't fit in the parking lot behind the stores on Haddon Avenue.

Haddon Avenue looked like a holiday circus. People sold hot dogs and soft pretzels, despite the fact that it was merely 10 in the morning. Balloon sellers struggled against the 30-mile-an-hour wind to hold onto their wares. Children bundled into bright-colored or pastel coats chased each other across the street, while their parents and grandparents laughed and chatted and made jokes about the chilly but sunny weather. It made for a great pre-show. I even bought a pretzel from Collingswood High School's wrestling team.

It was standing-room-only by the time I made it to in front of the Collingswood Library. I parked my bike in the bike rack and watched the parade for a while. Other than I wish they were more organized (with fewer stops and starts), it was really fun. There weren't as many floats as I thought there would be. Most of them were very home-made affairs concocted by local schools or churches. (Although one enterprising local glass company thoughtfully shot fake "snow" onto the crowd through a huge pile of "presents.") The high school bands were saved for the end of the parade, and other than I felt sorry for the flag girls who had to control their batons in that crazy wind, there wasn't really anything distinguished about them. (Oh, wait, one school - Collingswood? - played "Thriller" instead of generic Christmas tunes.) There were three local dance schools - the fifties themed group, with their cute red felt dresses and matching cat's-eye glasses, were the best.

Far more interesting were the things you don't normally see in local parades. There were at least three motorcycle groups and four groups of classic cars. (I loved the motorcyclists. Some of them had stuffed animals on the back of their bikes. The guy who had the huge stuffed rabbit riding with him was awesome.) There were stilts walkers who juggled and gave kids high-fives. There was an African group with gigantic tribal statues. A Nutcracker group had fairies in sequined mini-dresses, those neon pixie skirts I saw at Halloween, and tiny dollar-store wings.

There were people in costume. Some were dressed as Christmas characters. (I especially liked the Rudolph and Grinch getups.) Others appeared to have grabbed a random costume they thought looked good. There were lots of superheroes and, for some strange reason, Teletubbies.

Probably the most unusual sight were the Mummers, who made up at least half the parade. Living next to Philadelphia has its advantages. My favorites were the Mardi-Gras themed group, with their huge mask-shaped signs and mini-float, and the Fifties group, with their glittering poodle skirts and the only lead Mummer in sequin-and-feather-trimmed black leather.

I cut out of the parade about 20 minutes early for my first volunteering session at the Collingswood Library. I wasn't there for very long. The Collingswood Library is the cleanest, most organized public library I've ever seen in my entire life. I spent about 40 minutes going over the Large Print Books and A through E in the fiction section, and maybe five books were out of place.

After I gave up on the Library, I ran to Cafe Antonio II for lunch. The place was hopping when I went in. Despite the line, I was able to order a slice of white vegetable and a slice of regular cheese pizza and a Diet Pepsi.

I was originally going to stop at Dollar General on my way to the Haddon Township Library and grab a shower curtain, but it was getting late at that point, and I still had a lot to do. I just rode to the Haddon Township Library instead. I (finally) dropped off the books and DVDs I took out a while back...and realized that I'd forgotten the Seussical CD, which was sitting on the table in my music room home. Oops. Thankfully, one of the regular librarians was nice enough to renew it for me. As with the Collingswood Library, there wasn't much to do. I shelved both adult and children's DVDs and organized the kids' DVDs. They'd been moved to the other side of the kids' section, thanks to the arrival of new, larger bookshelves and the expansion of the kids' room. The computers had colorful, kid-sized keyboards now, too. I found Barbie In A Christmas Carol on DVD and decided to give it a spin after I ended up liking Mattel's take on Three Musketeers.

Stopped at Super Fresh after leaving the library and picked up a few more things than I usually get there. I've had a hankering for some grits since watching the new Good Eats episode on YouTube. I also picked up Marsala cooking wine (cooking wine and vinegar is cheaper at Super Fresh than it is at the Acme) and a notebook to replace the journal I bought on vacation last summer that's on its last pages.

And I forgot bunched carrots, which was what I came in for. The Acme doesn't sell those, either.

Headed for home after leaving Super Fresh, dodging the usual traffic on Cuthbert Road. I received quite a surprise when I stepped onto my porch. It was still filled with leaves when I left this morning...but when I got home, almost every leaf was gone. I have no idea how that happened. Either my neighbors decided to surprise me and sweep up, or the wind was so crazy today, it blew all the leaves off my porch!

Spent the rest of the afternoon doing a major dusting session. I always do intense dusting right before I bring out the Christmas decorations. I dusted under everything in the apartment, including things I don't usually dust under, like the DVDs and videos, the white plastic shelf with the entertainment books in the music room, the Star Wars action figures (they fall over so easily), and the collectible teddy bear and porcelain doll display on top of the closets.

(I gave myself a bit of a scare while dusting the TV side of the living room. I stepped on something cold in the dark and thought it was a mouse! Boy, did I scream! I must have really been tired, because it turned out to be the old ant bait trap I'd moved out from under the video rack and forgot to throw away.)

After I was finally done with that, I was able to pull out the first of the Christmas decorations, the Santa bag with the random holiday items that are too large or awkward to fit anywhere else - the mistletoe, the poinsettia print placemats, the wreath, the big plastic bell, the box with the New Year's tiaras and noisemakers, and a few odds and ends that I'd picked up at yard sales throughout the year and hadn't felt like trying to shove into the other containers.

I was so pooped after that, I couldn't even make the chicken tenders I had planned on for dinner. I just had a peanut butter and apple butter sandwich on home-made whole-wheat-rye bread instead.