Thankgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving.

The night before Thanksgiving, we took Monkey down to see the balloons being inflated. We've done this for years. The balloons are all laid out, on the streets around the American Museum of Natural History, and you walk counter-clockwise, looking at the balloons with every other family on the UWS wondering what the balloon is...until some toddler yells out "Diego" or "Clifford!" and the mystery is solved.

Years ago this was a mellow event, but now it has turned into a circus. I would rather go to Times Square on New Year's Eve with Monkey than repeat that mess. Waaaay too many people, and poor Monkey was down low on the ground in her stroller. I got claustrophobic FOR her, and we only got as far east as Columbus before giving up and heading home!

Thanksgiving Day the weather was unbelievable warm, a temperate 65 without much humidity, and it made for a nice day outside with Monkey. (I loved the weather, but I'm convinced that Al Gore got that Nobel for a reason....hello, global warming!). Because it was so nice, and despite the night before, we took Monkey to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, to watch the balloons.

She loved the balloons! Loved them! She screamed with delight and reached for them, cackling with insane toddler glee.

Only, the balloons she loved were the ones sold by the vendors, and held by happy toddlers in the crowd in front of us. We played the grinch card and declined to buy any for her, letting her scream with delight at the mere proximity of overpriced potentially lead-infested Thomas the Train Balloons on a stick for the low low price of 22$. (I've no clue what they charged, but I am confident they were waaay too much!). If there had been an Elmo balloon? Yup, we'd have been goners!

The real balloons? Meh. She could have cared less. Maybe next year........