Happy Thanksgiving

One thing I am really grateful for is having family just a few hours away.  

We visited my cousin and his family in New York City for Thanksgiving this year. As always, it was a lot of fun to spend time with them then in the Big Apple.

We drove down Wednesday afternoon and spent the evening viewing balloons being blown up for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade at the Museum of Natural History.  It was cool, but not as cool as watching them march down the parade route.   

The next morning Brandon and Danny left at 5:15 to scout out an awesome spot for the parade.  Tessa and I carted the kids around 6:15 in order to fight the crowd toward our spot.  It wasn't horribly crowded by the time we found the boys, but it sure was intimidating walking through alleyways of people, hoping that the smaller children didn't get lost.   

Tessa made cinnamon rolls for breakfast-which we ate right when we got there.  I hadn't had a cinnamon roll in such a long time. They sure hit the spot!

It wasn't long before Molly needed to use the bathroom.  Luckily we found one just in time to wait in line for an hour and a half.  Poor thing had to wait that long.  As we rushed back to the group we had to plead with an officer to let us through the barricade that blocked the road leading to our spot.  It was frustrating that he wasn't going to let us through and that we would have had to take a major detour.  We stayed put for a few minutes, questing his reasons for not letting us through, and then he finally gave in.  I think the kids helped out with that one.  At any rate, we made it to our spot with 5 minutes to spare. The parade started and we had a fantastic time. 

 Jakob especially loved the confetti.   There were about 5 or more groups of clowns throughout the parade that had the job of throwing confetti into the crowd.  For some reason our group was a popular target....perhaps because we were the only ones sitting down.  Some of the clowns gave the smaller kids handfuls of confetti to have their way with it....Jakob was one of those lucky children, but all he did was sort through the colors, gathering all the blue diamond shaped ones in Danny's glove.  He didn't even throw the rest of it in the air.  Silly kid.  

After the parade we went back to my cousin's house to prepare Thanksgiving dinner.  The 4-year-olds played really well together and Molly sure loved babying their younger son-Dan.  She is a good little "Mommy" and loves taking care of little kids.  

Dinner was absolutely amazing.  Tessa prepared a fabulous turkey-the best I've ever had-and we ended the meal with apple crumble pie and/or Banana cream pie.  DELISH!

The weather was perfect, not too cold, the company was delightful and the food was better than great.    It was the perfect way to celebrate life, family, and all the things we enjoy.  I am truly blessed.   

For quicker viewing, watch the first and last smilebox.  The middle smilebox is just parade stuff.  

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