Thanksgiving Week

The last three Thanksgivings we have been lucky and had visitors! We loved having visitors come and going out with them. This year Lyndon's sister and boyfriend cam to visit us. The kids and I went out with them one morning down in Soho. Cosette loved having Aunt Maggie and Ky around. More people to play with. She kept asking me where they were when they were not around and made sure that they were coming back to the apartment. She enjoyed sharing her room with Maggie and made sure that we knew Maggie's bed was the top bunk. 

Oh I love the holidays! Thanksgiving has been increasing in popularity in my book since being married. I think that is because we are creating our own traditions which are nothing big, but it makes me look forward to this holiday a lot more than I used to. All the Christmas events in the city really take off the day after Thanksgiving making this week even more festive. 

Me and the kiddos took them to Georgetown Cupcakes because free cupcake of the day. The flavor that day was caramel apple, yum! Cosette ate all the frosting off hers and left the cake. Frosting is her favorite. 

Sipping water together. 

Exploring in Chinatown. It is really like you are in another country because everything is in Chinese. The shops down there remind me so much of the Philippines with how you can talk down the prices of things. Cosette has the keenest eyes. She would see something and ask to go back and look at it, like Elsa, but I could not see what she would be talking about. She was so insistent that I would got back and she would crouch down and pull whatever she wanted out from behind something. I bet her view of the city from her piggy back board is fascinating. 

Holding her souvenir from Pearl River Mart. It's our favorite store down there. 

I tried to get a jump start on all the Thanksgiving preparations since we were getting up at the crack of dawn for the parade. Cosette put on her apron and was my sous chef the whole week. She helped me make all the pies and the turkey. Everyday she would ask to "make" something with me. Some precious memories were created. It makes me happy that she wants to do stuff with me and enjoys it. We talked about opening our own restaurant together. We came up with a name for it too.   

Her job is to crack the eggs. She was really interested in cracking eggs so I showed her how one day and not that is all she wants to do. She has become a pro at it. No eggs shells in any of the food we have prepared. 

To the cook go the spoils. We made a brownie pumpkin pie,and this is her eating the brownie batter. In total we made four different types of pumpkin pie: brownie pumpkin, sticky toffee pumpkin, buttermilk pumpkin, and a hazelnut linzer pumpkin pie. All those pumpkins she picks out at the grocery store went to good use. The sticky toffee pumpkin pie was the best. The pumpkin flavor was used the best in that one.

Wednesday we went down to the Natural History Museum to preview the parade balloons. Everytime we go by the museum right now we see the "Christmas Dinosaurs" as we call them. They are up and we are loving the Christmas decorations! I feel like after three years of living here we finally know when the best time to go to places and events in the city. Best to hit up the balloons early in the afternoon and that is what we did. That with bad weather equaled small crowds. It was great because in previous years we have been stuck in huge crowds moving at snail speed. Third times 

First balloon we saw which looks remarkably like the one in our book Balloons on Broadway which is the story about the puppeteer of the Macy's Parade.

Spiderman! 

 We got to see them blowing up the Adventure time balloon.

Seeing the balloons gets me really excited for the parade! I guess I am a kid at heart. 

 Toothless the dragon from How to Train your Dragon.

We were excited to see Thomas the Train on his inaugural flight in the Macy's parade. They saved the best for last which is the only way we made it through the balloon preview. Slush was falling from the sky. Not really snow, not really rain. 

Thursday was parade day! Post with video here.

We got the book Balloons on Broadway about the parade that we have been reading in preparation for the parade. It made the parade a little more special especially when we saw balloons from the book in the parade, like the caterpillar pictured somewhere above in the post. We saw the turkey, caterpillar, and football which were all featured in the book!

Thomas the Train Balloon was a big hit. It lead the parade off which helped get the kiddos excited.

Cosette was most excited to see the Sesame Street float. She has been very into Sesame Street lately and was so excited to see Elmo and the other characters from her favorite show. 

Enjoying the parade and trying to stay warm.

Henry slept through most of the parade. He was the warmest one of us all. Lucky kid had a pretty sweet set up with the reclining seat and stroller blanket, plus all the layers he had on.

They were great sports about getting up early and it paid off because we got prime spots. They said they had a good time. 

One of Lyndon's coworkers and her fiance met us there too. They brought doughnuts from Dough so they are now our favorite people. I like getting to know the people he works with, since he spends the majority of his time with them. This couple is awesome!

The Hello Kitty balloon is our favorite, even Lyndon says it is his favorite. He is a good Dad to get excited about things his kids like. 

Sitting on Daddy's shoulders gave Cosette the best seat in the house.

Cosette was very popular at the parade. She got tons of high fives and someone came up to her and gave her confetti. 

Parade confetti! I have been finding it all over the house since then. I don't mind. It's a sweet reminder from the fun we had.

The elf balloons means Santa is getting closer. 

Here comes Santa! Let the Christmas season begin! I have been playing Christmas music non stop since.

Our Thanksgiving feast. This was the best Thanksgiving spread I have prepared. Having a oven that works does wonders. 

The man of the house gets to carve the turkey. 

Turkey is served. Let the feast begin!

Ky introduced us to one of his family's traditions. We drew letters and had to say something we were thankful for that started with that letter. I ended up drawing the letter "U" and all I could think of was unicorns, but I am thankful for unicorns because Cosette and I talk about them a lot and read books about them. Thus, mommy-daughter bonding which I am thankful for.

I had to get a picture with my Thanksgiving meal masterpiece. It was a lot of work, but believe it or not it was not too bad. I planned everything out and started early enough in the week that it was not overwhelming. And I had a sous chef this year. Thanks Cosette! I only had to make four dishes on Thanksgiving and one was green beans which all you have to do is boil water and dump them in, so it was more like three things. Our stomachs were very satisfied.

I am most Thankful for this man in my life. He makes all my dreams come true. I cannot ask for more than that. We hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful and delicious. Happy Holidays!