Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is always my favorite holiday back home and I was a little worried about staying here in New York City while I knew all that was going on back home. It turned out to be a great day with my friends, we went to the parade and made out very first Thanksgiving without the aide of any parents.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

The longest running show down Broadway. It was so much fun to be there. People were everywhere. Lissa got there around 6:30 thanks to a "ghost". We were supposed to meet at 7:30 but she got there early and it was a good thing too. By the time I got there, it was incredibly crowded. We had a great spot to watch. We were on 75th St and Central Park West. Lissa got us a spot near a ledge and we were able to stand up there while we watched the parade. Before the parade started the crowd was probably 10-15 people back from the front. By the time it started it was over 100 people deep, maybe more. People kept trying to squeeze themselves up towards the front. Some people got rude about it and some actually fought about it. There were these two grown men who actually got into a fight, one was trying to move towards the front and the other guy wasn't having it. An old Grandpa guy yelled at them and tried to stop the fight and then someone got a cop over and he told them to grow up. It was pretty funny after it was over but for a minute I thought there would start throwing some punches and start wrestling on the floor. While I was up on the ledge, this guy was trying to get over to his family and he was going up and over the ledge. He was getting up right in front of me and knocked me off balance. There was about a 5 ft gap between the ledge and the side of the building and I started falling right into the gap. I let out a little scream, well I thought it was a little scream until I looked up and saw everyone looking at me. It was scary, I thought I was going to fall but I caught myself before I made the plunge. Lissa was on the ledge right behind me but she wasn't even paying attention and didn't even know I almost fell. I was a little embarrassed that hundreds of people heard me scream as I was falling but I recovered well and soon nobody remembered my little outburst. The thing that surprised me the most was the size of the balloons. They are enormous. They were a whole lot bigger than I imagined. They always seemed big but these were massive. It took so many people just to keep the balloon from floating away. Each balloon also had a director which would make sure the balloon didn't go too far to the right or left. At one time one of the balloons almost went into the trees because of the wind and they had to stop to reposition it. It was pretty crazy. The parade was a lot of fun but I would never do it again. It is a great memory and something I will get to tell my kids.

After the parade we went to Sarah's apartment to start cooking lunch/dinner. We each cooked different parts of the meal. Sarah did the rolls and desserts, Lissa did the stuffing and a vegetable and I did the mashed potatoes and gravy and one of Sarah's guy friends did the turkey (it was actually deli sliced turkey that was a little spicy but that isn't my favorite part of the meal anyway). The whole meal turned out great. I really enjoyed it and we all did really well. It was everyones first Thanksgiving without family and we all got through it. Well, Sarah and Lissa are sisters but we got through it without our parents and other siblings. I would give the meal an A++.

After we ate, Sarah went to a friend's house to have another meal and Lissa and I stayed back to take a nap. We took a nap, watched some friends and then went for seconds. It was such a relaxful day and it turned out better than I imagined.

I can't wait for next year to enjoy it with my family and play some volleyball and basketball.