BUNCH OF ROSES.

The Rose Parade is always on New Year's Day - unless Jan. 1 falls on a Sunday, which it does this year.

And the Rose Bowl Game is always played on parade day - unless the game is a national championship, which it is this year.

This mix of happenstance and Bowl Championship Series finagling has forced the Tournament of Roses Association to take what is typically a one-day event and spread it out over three weekdays - Jan. 2, 3 and 4. The parade will be held Monday morning; float viewing on Monday afternoon and Tuesday; and the Rose Bowl Game on Wednesday.

The last time the parade fell on a Sunday was in 1995. It has never happened when the Rose Bowl hosted the national championship game.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

(1 -- 2) DON'T MESS WITH MAMA 

Workers, above, help finish a Farmers Insurance Group float, themed '`Protecting Your Family,'' in which a mama Tyrannosaurs rex is the protector. Baby T. rex is being stalked by two Deinonychus antirrhopus ``terribleclaw'' dinos in the float that will roll Monday in the Tournament of Roses Parade at Pasadena. At left, Murray Smith of Santa Monica and Ann Vitti of Pacific Palisades do a little dental work on Mama T. rex. Workers are using roses, orchids, irises and daisies.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer