Thanksgiving Revisited

Back in November, we went to New York. We visited three of my sisters who all live there, enjoyed spending Thanksgiving with them, and managed to see the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.  I mentioned all this on the blog at the time, but blogger wasn't letting me post any more pictures, so I never did give you the full scoop.  Today I am finally remedying that.

First of all, I should point out that this was all Craig's idea.  If you know us at all, this probably won't surprise you.  Between the two of us, Craig is both the Big Idea Person, and also the Fun Parent.  I'm the one who just wants to stay home and keep things simple.  I'm lucky I married Craig, because without him I'd probably never do anything or go anywhere.  And I'm even luckier because not only does Craig force me to do things like this, he also has a knack for always pulling them off splendidly.  And this was no exception.

We'd arrived at my sister's house the night before, getting in really late, and getting up way too early the next morning because Ryder wouldn't sleep.  So we were exhausted from the get-go.  After helping out with some of the Thanksgiving prep, we took a train into Manhattan that afternoon.  Craig really wanted us to see Inflation Eve, where they blow all the parade balloons up.  But our plans got changed somewhat, mostly because we spent a couple hours standing around Penn Station while Craig sold his iPhone to some guy on the street (who he'd found through Craigslist), and then used that cash to buy the new iPhone.  This was a long and tedious process, but I couldn't really be too put out with him since he actually made money on the deal.  And then he was excited to take all these pictures with his new phone.

By the time that was done, I was beyond tired, and taking the subway with three kids in two strollers into the busiest part of town near the parade was a bit daunting.  Fortunately, several New Yorkers quickly saw our situation and helped haul strollers up and down stairs.  One man even wished me a Happy Thanksgiving as he hurried along his way, a random act of kindness that made me burst into tears.  (Stupid pregnancy hormones.)  Eventually we made it to Tracy's apartment, where she told me to sit down and hang out with Rachael, while Tracy, Craig, and Ian (my brother-in-law) ran out and got food for all of us from the Shake Shack.  Heaven (both the food and the sitting down).

Once we were done eating, it was apparent that the most important thing to do was to put our exhausted children to bed.  We left them at Tracy's and let her do most of the work there, and went and saw Inflation Eve, just the two of us.  That was a good decision, because it was PACKED and I was still pretty tired, too.  If we would have been pushing strollers, I think Craig would have had a mutiny on his hands.  As it was, we enjoyed seeing the balloons, and I took breaks sitting on park benches while Craig obsessively documented the whole thing.

After seeing most of the balloons, we headed to Fiorello's, where we'd heard that they served amazing chocolate mousse.  It was as good as everyone had told us, and I also drank about ten glasses of water while we were there (I guess I'd forgotten to stay hydrated, what with everything going on).  Then we took the subway (now empty, and now stroller free) to Rachael and Ian's place, where we stayed up way too late talking with them before finally going to bed.  (Why are all my sisters so fun to talk to???  It's impossible to ever go to bed at a decent hour when they're around!)

Craig and Ian got up at 4:45 the next morning and headed back towards Tracy's place, where they saved us all space to watch the parade.  Rachael and I slept a tiny bit later, and then went to Tracy's and helped her get the kids all dressed and fed before the parade.  When we found Craig and Ian, we discovered that they had done an AMAZING job of picking out a parade-watching spot for us.  There was plenty of room to sit, we were super close, and to top it all off, the weather was even pretty warm!  We only had a short wait before the fun began!

Notice that Ryder is wearing Daddy's gloves.  His hands aren't actually that big...

Most of the gang.  Rachael (and I) got chairs to sit on, and the rest were on a blanket.  Not bad, not bad...!

If you're six and four, you really can't get a better spot than this!

As Rachael snapped this picture, she commented, "Ah, yes, the two turkeys with the turkey."  Can't argue with that.

Tracy, Ian and Rachael

Kermit blocks out the sun for a moment

I know, I already posted this picture.  But it's worth repeating!

A rare smile from Bentley

Ryder enjoys hitting Daddy...

I have NO IDEA what we were talking about here.  But apparently we had strong feelings about it!

The whole family

Love Kendra's face in this shot...

... And in this one, too!

Right at the end, Ryder got bored and dumped an entire bag of goldfish crackers onto the sidewalk.  Then he proceeded to put them all back in the bag and dump them again.  I'm pretty sure he never ate any of them.  ...I hope.

And Santa!  Wow, that man was jolly!  I don't know how he had so much energy, but he was great!

So the parade was a raging success!  We had great seats, we didn't have to stand outside freezing for hours.  In fact, we weren't even freezing at all.  And we all had a great time.  And I have to give full credit for that to Craig and Ian, who were willing to get there early and save us seats and make it all happen.  Left to my own devices, I would never even have attempted such a thing!

There was one minor mishap afterwards.  Going back to Leah and Brian's, we (just my little family, not Tracy, Rachael or Ian) managed to get on the wrong train.  And the train we grabbed was a non-stop train to Connecticut.  Oops.  So we had to stand there for 45 minutes knowing we were going to the completely wrong state.  That was lame.  But it was also pretty hilarious.  Here we are in Stamford:

Craig said I looked sort of like one of the Beastie Boys.  Maybe if they were pregnant.  But that comment made me love this picture.

The parade had gone so well that all I could do was laugh about winding up in Connecticut.  The train that took us to the right stop came ten minutes later, and we ended up only being delayed by about twenty minutes in all.  So it wasn't a big deal-- mostly it's just something we can laugh about for the rest of our lives.

I'm glad I married someone so fun!