Thanksgiving, Part I

Thanksgiving is a topic too large to fit into a single post, so I'm splitting it into two this year. A recap of dinner and the various personalities present will follow; for now, I'll write about Thanksgiving morning.

Readers of my blog will know that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. I don't need to expound on that now; I explained my feelings in a similarly-timed post last year. (I provided that link so you can see how different Celia and Andres look now...one year makes such a big difference!)

Last year we were in NJ, so this year we stayed home for a family feast in Dover. This afforded us a well-deserved opportunity to be lazy on Wednesday night and Thursday morning. We all found different ways to stay warm, with Andres finding his favorite spot in the house--on top of the vent in his room. Happiness is a warm vent, apparently.

After breakfast the kids took in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for a bit (the giant balloons were a big hit, of course) while Natalia and I started cooking.

Seeing my own kids enthralled by the show on TV, I was transported into my dream state, again, thinking about my family's trips to NYC to see the parade in person in the early 80's. I remember car rides deep into the night on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Adam and I (and maybe Sarah at some point, though perhaps she came along too late for these trips) trying to sleep in the backseat, dad listening to either Harry Belafonte or the soundtrack of Cats (pick your poison) as he tried to avoid semis on I-95. We awoke the next day and there we were--the giant city--taking in the parade from his cramped office near Herald Square.

The parade never disappointed. But I felt the marching bands and famous people were mere appetizers to the real show--the giant balloons that scraped and bounced along the buildings as they made their way past our vantage point. They seemed too big to be true. And of these, my favorite was Underdog, the rhyming hero of my favorite TV show. Seeing him pass was such a thrill! But one Thanksgiving he did pass, in another sort of way, as his balloon was retired. I always blamed the Snuggle bear (which made its first appearance the year Underdog was retired) for his demise and never once purchased any of those damned dryer sheets.

Yesterday, my own kids' interest in the parade eventually faded and they moved onto other pursuits--like taking care of babies.

Andres eventually joined too, and the two of them took good care of their brood.

Thanksgiving is nothing without family, right?