Friday night, we managed to cram 4 people and 4 costumes into the car and hit the road to Jackson, where my grandparents live.
Chase was going to go see a band with my cousin that night there in Jackson, so Ash, Kevin and I curled up in the living room and watched movies. We went to bed pretty early, since I wanted to try to be on the road by 7:30. I knew Chase wouldn’t be back until late, since the band he wanted to see didn’t even come on stage til 10, but it was just up the road, so he promised to be home no later than 1.
I guess you wonder where I’m going with this – well, as I was laying there reading my book, I heard, I swear I heard gunshots, multiple gunshots, and Ash swears it, too. Whatever it was, it completely freaked me out, so I was very glad when Chase got back way earlier than we expected (like before midnight)… it was just an odd start to the weekend.
The next morning I dragged myself out of bed at 6:15, got Kevin in the shower, and went ahead and did my makeup. Kevin and I both got “partially” in costume – he put his Luke pants and white long-sleeve t-shirt on, and I put my jeans and white turtleneck on for the rest of the car ride.
We took the scenic route, got lost, but got into Clarksville for the toy drive at almost exactly 10 š They always let us have the employee break room to change in at this particular event, so the four of us all got changed.
Kevin had a BLAST, the weather was perfect (it wasn’t cold! Hurrah!) and we had a huge turnout.
Daaaaaaad can i get this pleeeeeeease
Then we ran off and got checked into the hotel – Kevin and I stayed in costume – and ate a quick lunch. Then we went on down to the start point of the parade so Ash and Chase could get “re-dressed”
Chase called Ash’s pre-parade look “a cross between Battlestar Galactica and Dr Who”
I put the camera away after that – I didn’t want to carry it through the whole parade. It was the first nighttime parade we’d done, so everybody was decked out with glow-y things and lots of lightsabers around. I put a lavender glow necklace around my belt, and Kevin had an orange one, and Ash had two orange glowsticks on either side of her chestbox LOL
It was a LOT of fun. It was a very long parade and Ash’s feet were completely torn up at the end. There were so many people there, all of them screaming and cheering and waving. While there were lots of shouts to our characters (even Ash got recognized – “Red Leader!!!!!!!” screamed one kid) we were pretty overshadowed by Yoda in his santa suit riding on top of the truck behind us. LOL. I did hear “nice buns!” a lot, LOL.
Kevin and I took a few more pics together after the parade –
Then we went off to the garrison Christmas party, ate, went to the hotel and crashed. (We got lost on the way to the party and ended up being the last ones there, and had to sit at the last available table – the “head table,” the big rectangular table at the front of the room, looking out over all the full round tables. It was really embarrassing, lol)
Sunday- Ash’s feet were in bad shape. She could hardly hobble. On top of that the weather had turned out colder (the night before had been around 60 – perfect for the parade) and rainy. We decided not to go to the Sunday parade, which was a good thing because the group ended up bowing out anyway because of the impending rain.
We instead went back down into Nashville, went and saw Enchanted (2nd time!) and ate at the Cheesecake factory. Then we came home in the torrential downpour… but blisters and weather aside it was a fun weekend š