The 2010 Tifton Christmas Parade

Friday I'd stuck neon pink and green Post-It notes in strategic places in the house. I even put one on the front door so I'd see it when coming into the house - just in case I forgot. Saturday I hurriedly picked up Joe from dialysis so we'd make it on time. There was no time for stopping to converse with the antelope herd standing by the side of the road. There was no time to sit and look at the new cover of snow on top of the mountains. There was no time to sit for long at the one stop sign and the six stop lights before we could pull up in front of the house. It was parade day! It was going to be time to see the majority of Cattell clan family members walking and riding in the 2010 parade edition. It was 3:08 when we walked into the house and we headed straight back to the office just in time to...wait! We had to wait for almost 1/2 hour, but we were ready.

It was fun sitting in front of the computer screen identifying people and places and listening to Hayward and Glenda's voices. How familiar that was. At one time Hayward seemed to have lost the focus and clarity on his picture so I called his TV studio and spoke with Glenda. I have known them both for many, many years, but she was a bit surprised to hear that I was calling from Casper, Wyoming. Upon her return to the street, she mentioned to Hayward that I called and I could hear all that conversation. Ain't technology a wonderful thing?!

So here we are already and waiting for the parade to start...

Then finally there was the family. And there was the flash from my camera on the computer, but there was the family!

And then there were more Cattell clan peoples all in their red tee-shirted glory...

How excited and grateful I was to see them. Though I wasn't able to see and recognize everyone, how grateful I was to see my family. How I wish though that they'd walked slower, driven slower, waved slower so that those few seconds could have been extended.

Thank you family members for doing this. I don't know the reasoning behind this two year tradition, but it brings immense comfort to me since I'd not seen any of those persons for almost seven months.

Thank you Hayward and Glenda for taking the time and effort to do things like this. How blessed I felt when I was able to watch my family because of you.