Attendees
The Burchsteds 
The Morgans
Michael Playle
The Lees
The Armstrongs

Michael Playle's Account:  Craig had placed the invite to attend the Friendswood Christmas parade  as part of the "MOT Houston Chapter's" December gathering.  Since I'm  still in a "footloose" mode and not working, I decided to attend as a  "MOT San Antonio Chapter" representative.  I drove my '02 MINI 'S' down  on Friday afternoon and visited an old friend from college for dinner  Friday.  Saturday morning, after sleeping in to 9:00, I got up and set  about washing the car for the parade.  While at the car wash on Hwy-3  near NASA Road 1, a motorcycle event went roaring by.  It took close to  1/2 hour for all the bikes to go by!  It was some BIG ride gathering.   Mostly Harley's, but lots of other cruiser bikes and a number of sport   and touring bikes.
After spending the rest of the morning and early afternoon being lazy,  I stopped at a store for some garlic bread for the "pot luck" after the  parade and then headed to Craig's place.  His directions were very easy  to follow.  Craig already had the inflatable snowman attached to the  roof of his green Mini.  I set about adding some of the decorations to  my MINI - the lights that would be on the inside of the windows and the  bow on front.  By 5:00, Mike Morgan and his wife had arrived as  well as Arturo Lee and his family.  Patrick and his wife also showed,  but were not going to be in the parade with their MINI.  The 4 cars  taking part in the parade then headed over to the staging area to do  the final decorating.  (We made a "Mini" parade on the way over for the  spectators getting set up early!)  At the staging area, Craig tested  the snowman to be sure it worked - it did fine.  The rest of us put the  lights on the outside of our cars.  About 6:00, the parade got  underway.  The Minis were set up as "group # 23" in the parade order,  so we didn't have to wait a long time for moving up and starting the  route.  There were lots of spectators linig both sides of the main drag  through Friendswood for the parade.  We could hear many exclamations  about the Minis as we slowly drove the route.  Lots of younger folks  recognized the new MINI of course and clamored about the old Minis when  they saw the plates that read "Mr Mini" on Craig's and "66 Mini" on  Mike's.  Many adults exclaimed about both saying: "Look, there are old  Minis and a new one!"  Lots of "I like your car!" and "Their so small  and cute!" comments were also heard.  At the end of the route, we  pulled aside into a parking lot and watched the rest of the parade  while removing the outside lights and packing things down for the drive  back to Craig's.
Back at Craig's, those that did not drive the parade had got the food  ready.  The last heating of things was started while everyone enjoyed  veggie snacks.  Jon and his wife were unable to attend, so we were  without the salad when the rest of the food was ready.  Dinner was  served and we all sat and enjoyed the company and meal.  About 9:30,  folks said their "thank you"s and "farewells" and went home.  On Sunday  morning I drove home to San Antonio.  A good time was had by all.