Scenes from a rickshaw on a magical night

If you ask me and the two little elves at my side, the best way to watch the Appleton Christmas Parade is on a rickshaw peddled by your extremely athletic friend smack dab down the middle of the route.

“This is the best night of my life,” one of the elves shouted repeatedly as he waved to the crowd like a champ and regaled them all with various Christmas Carols.

We landed right behind the Grinch, which made the whole trip down College Avenue even more entertaining for us and the record crowd perched three stories high along the Avenue.

We saw the mean ole Grinch taunt the little people brave enough to call him over, sidle to and fro and, occasionally, faint dramatically and require resuscitation from the ambulance he trailed.

The weather could not have been better for the occasion, just cold enough to make Santa feel at home, but windless and really quite pleasant. Everyone seemed to be having a wonderful Christmastime. We sure were.

We loved the theme of peace on earth and all the beautiful floats reflecting that theme. We also appreciated the variety of bands, and dancers, friendly dogs and dignitaries.

I had an opportunity to thank parade marshal Mary Beth Nienhaus for all she has done for our community.

The Appleton Christmas Parade really is an excellent example of all that is good and right about this sweet city.

And, the truth is, I was considering watching the parade from our nice warm home, until we got a call from our friend Dave asking if we’d like to ride in his rickshaw.

Thank goodness I’m a sucker for a wacky adventure.

Once again we’d like to extend a sincere thank you to the City of Appleton for kicking off our holiday season in such a magical way and to Dave Merry, our merry peddler, who not only escorted us through the route but also zoomed us back to the beginning when we were through.

Merry Christmas season to all and to all a good night!