Thankful Just the Same

Here in the City everything is done a little bit differently, mostly out of necessity, and we have grown accustomed to this over the years...but I have to say that our holiday season (Thanksgiving and into Christmas) has begun absurdly unorthodox! 

We decided to stay in NY for Thanksgiving because we really wanted to take Gabriel to see the parade and we have missed being in NY the past two Thanksgivings. Not so strange. Well, we don't exactly have an abundance of room to host a Thanksgiving dinner, so we gladly accepted an invite from friends to join them for their Thanksgiving feast...but on Friday, not Thursday. Ok, still not so strange, just a bit strayed from tradition.

We went to the pre-parade festival Wednesday evening to see the parade floats being blown up, which was neat to see but felt strangely like cattle being led to slaughter it was so crowded. No worries, we only live 8 short blocks from the action, so we just headed home when we had seen enough (only through a pre-approved exit of course!).

Each Thanksgiving morning, Andy and I have a tradition of going to Krispy Kreme and getting a donut and coffee...I don't know why, it's just something we did when we lived in Greenville and continued up here. But there is but a sole Krispy Kreme in the sea of Duncan Donuts up here, which to our chagrin we discovered closed this past September. Drats! New Yorkers love their stinkin' Dunkin' Donuts, blek!

So, we thought we'd look up another place that had donuts and maybe support a local place...well we found a place, you may have heard of it, 7-11? Haha. So Andy walked over a few blocks, at you guessed it, 7am, to pick us up our traditional Thanksgiving donuts....oh what a disappointment! I know, you're thinking how could a donut be bad, but these were. Well that's two traditions down the drain (no dinner and no donuts!)

Well at least we still had the parade. It started at 9am, but we didn't get Gabriel all ready and out the door until 9am, so we were worried we would not find a good spot. Even though we live just a few blocks away from the start, people get to the parade route at 6am for a good viewing spot. Hmmm. I have to say it was surreal to walk out of our building and look down the street and see huge floats hanging in the air. 

We decided to walk through Central Park to avoid the crowds and police barricades; when we got down to 72nd street, we noticed a few people standing up on the wall that runs the perimeter of Central Park, what a great view that would be! The wall was about 8 feet high, but undaunted we proceeded to see if we could get up on top for a great view for Gabriel (this just as Spiderman was making his way down the route, so that of course gave us an adrenaline rush!). 


Andy was able to climb up the wall, then I handed him Gabriel and our child carrier backpack...I stayed down on the ground for a few minutes while Gabriel immediately became enthralled in the parade. A couple sitting on the wall offered to give me a boost so I could join, and I said 'are you sure?', and they were like 'yea, we gave a granny a boost earlier, you can do it!'. I'm in. So I grabbed hold of the guy's hand, hiked my leg up and he pulled me up. Strange, yes, but totally worth it...what a great viewing spot! We really lucked out considering we got a late start. We stayed until the end of the parade and Gabriel loved every minute of it. He kept saying and signing 'more, more, more', waving at the people and floats and pointing out the things he actually recognized. Such a great memory.

Back to the apartment, we hopped off the wall and walked back home. Hmm, what would we have for lunch on this Thanksgiving day? Well, corn chowder of course! I whipped up a big pot of it, which hit the spot after being out in the cold all morning. True, it was no Thanksgiving feast, but good enough. You would have thought we all devoured a Thanksgiving meal though the way we all passed out for naps after lunch! 

As nightfall and dinnertime approached (which normally would equate to the devouring of all of the leftover goodness from lunch) we were left wondering what do we eat for dinner?? Admittedly, I had not been to the grocery store so the options for a home cooked meal were slim. Andy and I decided to venture out, besides it's always nice to roam about the City when it is actually quiet (this only happens on Thanksgiving day and Christmas day). 

Not surprisingly, most everything was closed. At the very least we needed some milk for Gabriel, so we stopped in the grocery store that was open and picked some up, but left empty handed in terms of dinner ideas. On the way home, we spotted this cute little cafe that appeared to be open, but was vacant. Perfect! We headed inside (asked them if they would put our milk in their cooler!) and began to peruse the menu. It was an Italian place, and we thought it was new. Turns out, they have the most delicious food I have tasted in a long time, and at a great price...so much so that Andy and I ordered a second entree to split (pumpkin ravioli in a pesto sauce by the way). It was so enjoyable to have the place to ourselves and just enjoy a family meal. 

We headed home, bellies full, to wind down for the day. I have to say I have never spent any Thanksgiving doing any of the things we did today, but we made some memories and I am indeed thankful just the same!