Thanksgiving

(from Nov 30th)
This year, Thanksgiving Day was jam-packed!!  We were lucky enough to be offered 4 tickets this year for one of the grandstands at the Thanksgiving Day parade and Omi came down to join the boys and I - this was the 1st time the boys and Omi to see the parade in person!  Jay opted to avoid the cold (and wanted to give Omi his ticket) so he stayed home and watched us on tv.   It was REALLY cold that morning but we put on lots of layers and headed crosstown to go to our meeting spot.   We needed to be there by 7:30ish and since I was not really sure how it worked, we didn't want to be late so we left home at 7 am.   As we got closer to where we were supposed to show our tickets, we saw many of the surrounding streets were already a few rows deep with people - Luckily, we got to avoid all of that!

When we showed up at the correct location, we were escorted a few blocks and in to Macy's which was great because we got to use the nice, clean bathrooms, we were given pompoms and confetti and we were told to be lively because we would be on tv and we even got some coffee from the Keuring salespeople.   When we headed outside, we were so surprised to find out our seats were right in front of Macy's by the broadcast booth!! Savannah Guthrie, the newscaster for the parade, waved hi on her way in (she was really waving to the kid in front of us but whatever, looked like she was looking at us)

view from our seats of the booth which is the where the reporters were

After one of the bands did a warm up number, it was almost go time so we got situated and waited for the start.

What I didn't realize in all the years of watching the parade is how the logistics work:  the parade starts uptown but our seats are at the very end so they need to do something to keep us entertained.  As a result, the parade begins and starts marching downtown, different Broadway shows do their performances right in front of Macy's that only we, and the viewers at home, get to see.   That made the waiting time more tolerable but when we heard the parade approaching, it got really exciting!

The kids were screaming with excitement at the noise, confetti and whole scene of the parade and I loved watching their faces as each different balloon went by. 

 We were told to throw our colored confetti and wave our pompoms at the start of the parade but we were supposed to save our white confetti until Santa came.  Dylan got more than his fair share of confetti tubes (and asked me every 2 minutes when he could use it) and he wasn't able to hold them all in his hands.   He didn't want me to hold them either because he was worried I would mix them up with Ryan's so, he made up his own solution - store them in his hat!  

Finally, the Big Guy himself ended the parade - it was Santa!   The kids were so excited that the REAL Santa was there, not one of his helpers and they made sure to wave, yell and throw their confetti!

After the parade, we relaxed a bit in the apartment before heading to Westchester to go celebrate at Michael and Jasmine's house.  

We all spent the afternoon eating, watching football and just relaxing. 

Unfortunately, Jay had to work and Erika, Richie, Ava and Ella were in North Carolina so they weren't with us and we missed them but we all still had fun together. We have lots to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving!