Wow. I live about 4 miles from where the Rose Parade is held and on Jan. 1, I usually stay far away because it's a traffic nightmare. BUT...I took my 3 yo daughter for her first time because I thought she'd enjoy it, which she did.

But nothing was more enjoyable than watching 300 Stormtroopers march by, followed by a Star Wars marching band (Grambling State) and about 3 Star Wars floats. I was ridiculously excited by all of this! Good grief, I even found myself waving to Chewbacca! The band played the SW theme song and it gave me goosebumps!

It was rad. And yes, I'm a nerd.

No, I knew that they'd be marching but there's just something awesome about witnessing it first hand!

Before the parade (and I agree parades are lame, even with stormtroopers) they have a stealth fighter do a fly by which is pretty cool because it comes in pretty low; I told my wife that this year in honor of George Lucas, instead of the stealth it was going to be an X-wing and she just nodded her head in agreement.