Time to kickoff another full slate of Sunday afternoon NFL action, but, I sense something missing. Cold and snow?; nope, that’s not it, I have all of that I need outside my windows. Wondering why egg nog only sounds appealing once a year?; nope, I decided my New Year’s resolution is an egg nog only diet (sans alcohol), so that can’t be it.

I know! Because Houston Texans are in Indy today, the super cool, social media pioneers, the Houston Texans Cheerleaders are not on the Reliant Stadium sidelines today! Well, in lieu of seeing the HTC kicking up their boots today, their wonderful Manager and Coach Alto Gary provided the wonderful opportunity to UltimateCheerleaders to see the Texans Cheerleaders during the Texans-Jaguars home game, so here they are!

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Today, photos of true Raiders fan Brandi of the Oakland Raiderettes, with a few fun facts, designed to delight and amaze:

• Brandi is in her second season as a Raiderette
• The name of the beverage known as “brandy” comes from “brandywine,” derived from Dutch brandewijn, or “burnt wine.” It is a spirit produced by distilling wine, and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink
• TLC ranked the top after dinner food, that is, desserts, from tenth to first: cheesecake, cupcakes, Jell-O, carrot cake, apple pie, ice cream, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate cake, and fudge. Fudge, number one? I would like a recount!
• In the holiday film A Christmas Story, Ralphie has his mouth washed out with soap for saying, “Aww fudge” (or something close to that)
• In 2012, a Marist Poll named A Christmas Story the most favorite holiday film in the U.S. Based on 44 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an overall approval rating from critics of 89%
• Raiderette Brandi is from a big family of devoted Raiders fans. In fact, as a 13-year old, Brandi rooted on the Raiders to win the 2002 AFC Championship against the Titans
• A year earlier in 2001, the series “Moesha” ended its six year run. The series starred singer Brandy Norwood as Moesha Mitchell, and in Season 3, Usher played Jeremy Davis, a love interest of Moesha
• In 2004, VH-1 aired “The Fabulous Life of….Usher”
• Brandi is one of the most Fabulous Females in Football
• In fact, Raiderette Brandi is featured in Bud Light billboards this season
• Whitepages.com says there are eight people in the US named “Bud Light,” including one in California
• Brandi graduated from beautiful UC-Santa Barbara in Economics and is a specialist in Accounting
• UCSB is the Gauchos, which is the South American term that is the equivalent of “Cowboy”
• Jerry Jones says the Cowboys were too impatient with former Cowboy and current Raider star receiver Andre Holmes
• Brandi would like to get over her fear of heights and skydive
• Acrophobia is an extreme or irrational fear of heights
• In the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo, the main protagonist, retired detective John “Scottie” Ferguson (James Stewart) suffers from acrophobia
• Asked in her Raiderette bio about which celebrity she would like to be for a day, Brandi answered that she would trade places with Grace Kelly as a 1950’s actress to be able to work with Hitchcock and Cary Grant. Also, Brandi would like to try on her wardrobe!
• Until January 26th, the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania has an exhibit entitled, “From Philadelphia to Monaco: GRACE KELLY – Beyond the Icon.” This exhibit illustrates her life through letters, photographs, awards, couture fashion and other personal artifacts, as well as film clips, playbills, home movies and souvenirs from her acting career
• Highlights of “Beyond the Icon” include the gown she wore to the Oscars in 1955 and dresses she wore in the movies To Catch a Thief, High Society, Mogambo, and The Swan.
• I think the museum should allow Brandi the opportunity to try on all of Princess Grace’s garments!

More photos of lovely super fan Brandi are available at the Continue link and even more at this link…

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Congratulations to the wonderful Tandra being chosen to represent the TTC in the Pro Bowl!

Today, photos of Jen of the Oakland Raiderettes, with a few fun facts, designed to delight and amaze:

1. Jen is in her second season with the Raiderettes
2. Jen is from Santa Cruz
3. Santa cruises on Christmas Eve guided by flying reindeer
4. L. Frank Baum’s The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, a 1902 children’s book, further popularized Santa Claus. Much of Santa Claus’s mythos was not set in stone at the time, leaving Baum to include ten reindeer—who could not fly, but leapt in enormous, flight-like bounds. Flossie and Glossie are Santa’s principal reindeer in Baum’s story. Claus gathers eight more reindeer, named in rhyming pairs: Racer, Pacer, Fearless, Peerless, Ready, Steady, Feckless, and Speckless. L. Frank Baum knew his Oz, but he was a bit off on his reindeer! Come on L. Frank!
5. Jen flies through the air snowboarding in Tahoe and Vail
6. Jen met her husband eight years ago
7. The 1956 popular song by George Melachrino, “Mrs. Santa Claus”, and the 1963 children’s book How Mrs. Santa Claus Saved Christmas, by Phyllis McGinley, helped standardize and establish the character and role of Mrs. Claus in the popular imagination.
8. Last December, Jen and fellow Raiderettes Ashley, Bess, and Jalina visited China, and Jen blogged from Shanghai
9. Shanghai Surprise is a 1986 British adventure comedy film starring then-newlyweds Sean Penn and Madonna.
10. The movie was panned by critics and failed at the box office. It was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards, “winning” one of them, Worst Actress for Madonna.
11. According to Google Translate, Football’s Fabulous Females in simplified Chinese is 足球的美妙女性
12. Jen and her husband love the outdoors and extreme sports
13. In fact, Jen hurt herself dirt biking in Hollister before her first Raiderette tryouts
14. Napoleon Dynamite’s grandmother broke her coccyx in a quad-bike accident and asked Uncle Rico to look after Napoleon and Kip while she recovered.
15. Uncle Rico said, “Back in ’82, I used to be able to throw a pigskin a quarter mile.”
16. 1982 was the first year the Raiders played in LA and the year they drafted Marcus Allen

More photos of lovely Jen are available at the Continue link and even more at this link…

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Everything IS big in Texas! When Alto Gary, the Houston Texans Cheerleaders Manager and Coach, told me the Texans-Jaguars game halftime was a big cheer all star program, I imagined ‘big.’ But when halftime came, and the performers kept emerging from the tunnel, then more, then more, then more, it was obvious this would be Texas sized BIG! The All-Star Cheerleaders were middle school, high school, and competitive teams, and I guess when you combine cheerleading, All-Stars, and Texas all together, you get quite a show! Here are some photos:

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I have always wanted to interview Yalea of the Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders. The Michigan native is a chemistry teacher, with Masters degrees in public health and education. But Jayme Lamm of The Blonde Side in Man Cave Daily beat me to it (Titans Cheerleader Yalea Has Chemistry).

Curses, I’ve been scooped! I’ll never know Yalea’s favorite element, if she ever saw a lab experiment go ker-blew-y, or if she would be impressed if a man offered her a bottle of hydrogen hydroxide. Or what her favorite chemistry joke is, like “What did the proton say to the electron? Why are you so negative!” or “Neon walks into a bar. The bartender says, ‘What’ll you have?’ Neon doesn’t react; Neon’s a noble gas, it never reacts.”

But I will concede, Jayme’s interview with Yalea is cool (she also recently interviewed super good friend of UltimateCheerleaders Allie of the Indianapolis Colts Cheerleaders, Colts Cheerleader Allie Never Quits). But does she have photos of Yalea at the Halloween game, in her Esmeralda costume? Well, here are some photos of Yalea from that game:

There are more photos at the Continue link below and also at this link…

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Today, photos of Tori of the Oakland Raiderettes, with a few fun facts, to boot:

1) Tori is in her fourth season with the Raiderettes
2) Tori is 100% NFL approved Fabulous!
3) Tori describes herself as a tomboy
4) According to the Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, the noun “tomboy” (formed by joining the male name Tom and the word “boy”) was coined sometime before 1553, and meant a boy who was rude or boisterous. By 1592 it was applied to girls, and that’s been its meaning ever since.
5) Tom Flores coached the Raiders to two Super Bowl wins, and he and Mike Ditka are the only two people in the NFL to win championships as a player, assistant coach, and head coach
6) Tommy Boy is a 1995 American road comedy film directed by Peter Segal
7) The Raiders moved back to Oakland in 1995 (can it be almost 20 years?!)
8 ) Tori loves to laugh
9) Researchers at Vanderbilt University found adults burn an average of 1.3 calories per minute while laughing with their friends. That’s about the same number of calories you burn while taking notes in a classroom or standing and talking on the phone. But laughter has other benefits besides burning calories, including relief of emotional stress and a workout for the muscles of the diaphragm, abdomen, back, and shoulders.
10) The Tory political faction emerged within the Parliament of England to uphold the legitimist rights of James, Duke of York to succeed his brother Charles II to the throne in the 1600’s
11) Tori is co-owner of a day care/preschool for kids up to age five
12) On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day
13) Why? Why? But why?

More photos of lovely and fun Tori if you click on the “Continue” link, plus more at this link…

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Allen Americans Ice Angel (and former Tampa Bay Lightning Girl) Brooklyn assists with last Friday’s ‘turkey curling’

Casey and the Houston Texans Cheerleaders hosted a big mega-terrific cheer-full halftime show last Sunday

Last Sunday prior to the Bengals-Browns game, Dana of the Ben-Gals performed the Star-Spangled Banner, which was especially important as the NFL was honoring US veterans in stadia across the nation. Dana has a BFA in theatre and dance from the University of Miami (FL), and is an Outreach Consultant for a higher education software company. The talented fourth year Ben-Gal is an experienced singer, including winning a ten-week long singing contest sponsored by a local casino which gave her the opportunity to sing regularly at the casino.

Dana was kind enough to share with UltimateCheerleaders some of her feelings before, during, and after her performance last Sunday:

UC.com: How many times have you sung the Star Spangled Banner before? Ever before such a large crowd?

Dana: I sang the Star Spangled Banner in high school, and played it a million times in band (yes, I’m a band geek!), but never before a crowd as big as this one! I do sing regularly at Hollywood Casino, so I’m used to singing in front of crowds, but this is definitely the biggest crowd yet!

UC.com: Is it a challenging song to sing? How did you prepare for your performance at Paul Brown Stadium?

Dana: It can definitely be a challenging song to sing, but if you find the right key for you it can make it a lot easier. I practiced at home and in the car as much as I could, but I also met with my vocal coach a few times to make sure it was as perfect as it could be!

UC.com: Were you nervous at all pre-game?

Dana: I went between being nervous and excited for the entire week before the game. I think what kept me calm was the fact that we are out on the field all the time during practices and games, so it just felt like another day out there. Once you are down on the field, you feel kind of separated from the crowd, so it was easy to go into my own little bubble. I did not perform in the pre-game routine with the other ‘Gals because I would have been winded for the anthem, but while they were performing the nerves kicked in a little bit, however, once I stepped in front of the mike, somehow the stress melted away and I felt really at ease. It also helped that I had my fellow Ben-Gals in my sight line while performing; it is weird being out on the field without them! We are sort of like a security blanket for each other!

UC.com: Was it challenging to sing in November weather?

Dana: It was not challenging to perform in the weather. We were really lucky that the rain decided to go away for the first half of the game (the same cannot be said for the second half…). When I did my sound check at 10:30 in the morning it was drizzling, so we were debating whether or not we would use an umbrella, if necessary. Thankfully, the rain held off and the temperature was fairly comfortable by 1:00, so there really were no issues at all!

UC.com: How can you prepare for the acoustics of a big stadium, and the echo?

Dana: Oh, the dreaded echo! This was what had me the most nervous leading up to Sunday. I knew about the echo; there is about a one to two second delay between what you say and what the crowd hears. It definitely posed a challenge. Have you heard of that new app called Speech Jammer? It’s a lot like that! I practiced several times with the radio blaring to try to get myself to focus on my own lyrics as opposed to what was going on around me. I learned ahead of time that they do not have any type of monitor on the field, so I decided to bring earplugs. I forgot to bring the earplugs out to the sound check and ended up having to hold my ears closed so that I could ensure I was hearing myself correctly and staying on pitch. The earplugs did help when I sung it at game time, so I definitely recommend that to anyone who may sing the anthem in a stadium in the future!

UC.com: How did it feel to hear the cheers at the end?

Dana: Every time I hear the national anthem, I get excited when the crowd gets into it and starts cheering. In the moment that I was singing it, I was kind of ‘in-the-zone’ because I didn’t want to mess up, but when I finally got to the big note at the end and realized that the crowd was cheering, it really fired me up! I think that the lyrics and the song, itself are so inspiring that it tends to fire everyone up on its own, but to be the lucky one who gets to sing it is a feeling that is indescribable! On top of everything else, this was our military game, so it was such a huge honor to be the one that got to sing our national anthem during the game which honored those who fight for our freedom.

UC.com: Which family and friends were at the game?

Dana: I had a lot of family and friends at the game: my husband, my parents, step-parents, in-laws, several of my sisters, my brother-in-law, an uncle, and friends of the family were there, along with other friends who happened to be in the crowd that day. I was allowed to bring four people down on the field with me, so I brought my dad, since he is the one who always watched Bengals games growing up and turned me into the huge fan that I am today (plus it was his birthday!), my older sister, who is also a huge Bengals fan and loves football, my husband, who has supported me the entire time I have been on the squad and who comes to every game to see me, and my father-in-law, who has taken me in as part of the family since day one, and who also happens to be an Air Force Veteran. It was an honor to have him down on the field for the military game!

UC.com: If you were going to start a Ben-Gal singing group, which of your Ben-Gals sisters also are talented vocalists?

Dana: If I were to start a Ben-Gals singing group, I’d definitely have Maria B. singing with me; she is amazing! I’d also have Jessica and Katie as my backup singers/dancers; they always sing and goof around, so I have joked many times that they need to be my backup singers for the anthem! I’m sure there are other talented singers on the squad, so maybe we need to have another karaoke night to figure out who they are!

No doubt!

Click on the image below to hear Dana’s absolutely amazing rendition of our National Anthem! Her family, friends, and Ben-Gal sisters must have been so proud upon hearing such a powerful performance. Thanks Dana for sharing your thoughts about such a wonderful moment on a grand stage!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5ku4AY4d6s&feature=share[/youtube]