For the past two years the Island King and I have been in charge of the Christmas Parade float for our Cub Scout pack.
It's not that hard but it is time consuming so we decided last year that this year we wanted someone else to do it.
But at the pack meeting after Christmas our pack leader asked us to stand up.
He thanked us for our hard work and then said "And I nominate you in charge again next year."
Everyone in the room clapped and there we stood. Saying no was no longer an option.
So here we are. It's Christmas time and once again we're in charge of the float.
But this year it's REALLY different.
Our old cubmaster's son moved on into Boy Scouts so we have a new guy. A new guy who is really excited about building a float.
Because our old guy moved on we no longer had access to a boat from Legendary or the use of their hangar.
Not a problem.
My BIL has a giant trailer that he hauls beach cleaning equipment on and one of our pack members owns a plane that he keeps in a hangar at the airport.
Perfect. I lined up the trailer, a shelter to build the float in and then suggested we go with the Polar Express as our theme.
Our Packmaster took the ball and ran. He's a park ranger so my BIL took the trailer to the workyard at the park and then the packmaster took over.
He built railings, benches and added a smoke stack all in one afternoon.
We moved the trailer to the hangar and then a few dads showed up and went to work.
They nailed paper all over it and then cut out windows. The boys will be sitting on the benches, hanging out of the windows (safely) during the parade.
Then they constructed an engine for the front.
Tomorrow night we have a woman from our pack who is an artist coming and she's going to paint the paper like a train.
We also have a guy bringing a fog machine that will send smoke out of the smokestack.
Friday night we're having a pack party in the hangar and will let the boys add the finishing touches.
We learned last year that it's easier to do it over a couple of nights and only have the kids there the last night.
Since the men are so gung-ho all I've had to do is coordinate everything - which means a lot of phone calls and emails but that's much better than trying to work with a bunch of men and power tools.
Hopefully tomorrow night will go just as well and by Saturday morning we should have a GREAT float.Labels: Done
