Unlike the past two years, this year we flew in for Thanksgiving on Monday evening, rather than on Thanksgiving Day, so this post will also include the days of our trip leading up to Thanksgiving itself! Gabbie took the train from school and got to Dave’s sister’s house where we were staying a bit before we did.
On Tuesday, we didn’t do very much because Dave was working, but we went to his parents’ house that evening and had Chinese food for dinner. I also introduced the kids to the Karate Kid. Growing up I was a big fan of Karate Kid part 2, but they had to watch the first one first!
I’m not sure what this picture is about, but it’s Simon being Simon.
On Wednesday, Dave worked in the morning and in the afternoon we went to NYC to check out the parade floats and balloons. I remember Dave and I once went to see the balloons the night before the parade and it was just something you walked up to and saw. Now, the were lines wrapping around blocks and going every which way! First, we saw some of the floats.
Then we went through the park to try to get to the other side where the line for the balloons started.
We couldn’t find the end of the line and it was just going on forever! Eventually we merged onto the street, thinking we were walking back away from the line, but at some point we realized we were actually in the line! Not sure if we cut in or found the end without realizing it! At some point, our nephew joined us too.
After the first street worth of balloons, we came upon the NYC mayor having a press conference, so we watched that a bit.
Then we saw a few more balloons.
And then we went to dinner, passing one more float on the way out.
I got a burrito.
On Thanksgiving morning, we attended a bar mitzvah for the son of our former rabbi who now lives in NY. It was nice to be there. In the early evening we headed to Dave’s parents’ house for Thanksgiving dinner. Dave was wearing an orange sweater and said it was his Thanksgiving shirt – according to pictures, he didn’t wear it last year but he did wear it the previous year! And Zachary and Simon wore the same shirts last year too – how weird!
Our family is always growing and this year we have a new great nephew and a new great niece. They are both adorable but our great niece is at a very sweet age of interaction and no fear of strangers yet!
It’s always good to see our older great nieces and nephews too (and their parents!)
(and grandparents)
Time for the food!
And more cute kids!
Dave’s sister arrives late since she works on Thanksgiving. So here she is with the baby and also Dave’s mom with the baby.
Cuties with their uncle:
And Simon being Simon once again.
Gabbie came up with a Bingo idea (from TikTok) which we came up with ideas for earlier in the day and my kids played it for a bit. Zachary didn’t want the others to know what they were doing because if they knew the prompts, they might avoid saying or doing those things. At some point though, we let the other cousins in on it and they all thought it was hilarious, passing around my kids’ phones to read the Bingo squares. One of the things on there was saying “You’ve gotten tall!” which our 6’7 nephew said to Simon. And right after that, Dave’s sister said it to the same 6’7 nephew! So that was pretty funny!
We always have lots of fun together!