The Reason We Went to London

On Dec 26, 2012 we flew from Los Angeles to London for a week of activities that culminated with the London's New Year's Day parade.  The parade ran from the Ritz to Piccadilly Circus on to Whitehall and Parlament Street where it met Bridge Street a block from Westminter Bridge.

The reason we went to watch this parade was because our oldest granddaughter, Garnet, was going to march in the parade.

In August 2012 at Cheer Camp, Garnet tried out for the All American Cheerleaders and was selected as a member. Varsity Tours set up the travel arrangements and tours. We had an amazing time in London. There were several excursions and two days of All-Day Tube passes for everyone as well as breakfasts for everyone and vouchers we could use for our lunches.

New Year's Day was cool with highs predicted around 50 F.  John, Cecelia (Garnet's mother, my daughter) and I had grandstand seats.  We didn't find out until after brunch where our seats were but they couldn't have been better.  We were in the third set of grandstands but on the very first row. I was quite grateful we didn't have to stand for the 3+ hours of the parade.

Garnet was in the third group of Cheerleaders and performed to the music Starship. I managed to get a fairly good picture of her.

The paper, flower, button and journal spot were from Britt-ish Designs kit Carousel. The 'awesome' stamp is from the Abstract Cheerleader Brush set by Anna Aspnes (although the brushes don't seem to be available at this time)and the word 'reason' was made using letters from Kelly Shults at A Cherry on Top Christmas Happy Holidays kit. I used two fonts, 'The' and 'we came to London was' were typed with AcclamationItal and the journaling was typed using Lucida Handwriting.