Thanksgiving in NYC

Our NYC weekend was a great adventure full of fun, new experiences for Grace.  She was "over the moon" excited about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and for weeks told anyone who would listen that she was going to see the parade and wave to "the real Santa".  I am pretty sure the reality of the weekend lived up to her expectations!

Our hotel was on the same street as the balloon inflation.  This posed a little difficulty with parking and checking in the first day, but was worth it to see the enormous balloons held down all night by nets and sand bags.

Buzz Lightyear even had "Andy" written on his foot.

After Grace went to bed on Wednesday, I went back outside to practice
using manual mode at night.  Not bad for doing it without a tripod.

After getting up at 2:30AM on Wednesday, driving 8 hours, and staying up for 20 hours straight, I really didn't want to wake up at 4:30AM on Thursday for the parade.  But getting a curbside space was important so we all got up and met at our planned location a little before 6:00AM.  Yes, that is 3 hours before the start of the parade!  But it was worth it. And, luckily, it wasn't too cold that morning so the wait wasn't too bad.

The three kids were AMAZING all morning.  They played on the iPad, entertained us with Charades, and kept checking over the barrier to see if there was any glimpse of the first balloon or band.

And then, suddenly we heard the roar of the crowd uptown and were surprised by roller blading clowns (Grace did not like ANY of the clowns in the parade!) who swooped right by us.  In the sky was the first balloon - Hello Kitty - making her maiden voyage in the 2012 parade.

Hello Kitty was followed by a cast of familiar characters including famous performers on floats and high school and college marching bands.  Ever the music lover, Grace told us over and over that she enjoyed the marching bands best!

Along with Hello Kitty, Papa Smurf and Elf on the Shelf made their first appearance in this year's parade.  We were standing next to a woman whose daughter was a handler for Papa Smurf! 

And, then, two hours after the parade began, Santa and Mrs. Claus rode their sleigh right past us. We jumped around, waved, and called his name. I am sure he saw Grace!