Thanksgiving memories

So Thursday morning I decide it is time for Max to be introduced to one of mommy's favorite holiday past times.... Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. And just to prove that I did have some little part in the genetic make up of my husband's clone... he loved it... danced with the music and ooh'd and awe'd over the balloons. In my haste I told him that one day mommy and Daddy would take him there to see it in person...
I say that I spoke in haste because my 1st and only experience of actually seeing the parade in person was well.... aweful!!!
Mama Beck was having her 1st Thanksgiving away from home. I was determined to make this the coolest Thanksgiving ever! Allison and Todd had just moved to New York in April.. Kyle and I in September.. and Tiff was up visiting from Virginia. I am up way too late the night before preparing the stuffing, blah blah blah... I then wake up way too early to stuff the turkey and wake up Kyle and Tiff so we can make the trek into the city to see our 1st Macy's parade. We (in Queens) had made plans to meet Todd & Al (in Brooklyn) some where on the upper West side. So we throw on sweats and lots of warming attire (it was damn cold). Kyle and Tiff are not nearly as excited about being up this early in the cold and wet as I am... but in Mama Beck style I convince them this would be a day we would never forget!!
We change trains to start heading up town when all of a sudden Tiff says..."Isn't that Al?" This is a crazy never gonna happen again New York moment... not only are we on the same train of the hundreds running that day, but we are in the same car (of the thousands to chose from). Allison hears Tiff and looks up with tears in her eyes and Todd several benches away from her... WARNING!! My dearest friends had been playing host to Todd's parent's all week... to give you an idea of what house guests in New York is like.. imagine the smallest walk in closet in your home.. stuff everything you own into it, then stuff a couple of large suitcases and unfold your couch into a queen size bed.... shove it up 5 flights of steep stairs that has no elevator and "Viola" you have Todd & Al's Brooklyn apartment with guests. Now it s not the guests fault... Todd's parent's are wonderful!! But you can only take so much wonderful when the radiator is blowing off hot air constantly!
So... Todd & Al are in a fight.... Kyle and Tiff are cold and grumpy.. I am determined this is still the right thing to do!
We get off the subway and start heading towards to Central Park... no... we turn around and then start heading towards Central Park. We finally catch up with all the crowds and start to wait for our turn to see the giant balloons and holiday floats with pseudo stars that just got cast in their 1st big break on NBC. We still have quite a while to wait... and it is getting colder... and wetter.. and colder thanks to the brisk uptown wind that is gonna be bringing those damn balloons. The crowds are getting bigger... people think that just because they have small children they can inch their way to the front and then I see Kyle looking up in anger at a window. There is a spoiled little brat in her cozy PJ's on the third floor of her million dollar Central Park West Apt with floor to ceiling windows mocking us.. literally sticking her tongue out and mocking us... At this point I am sure that Kyle is going to use Tiff, who now looks like a little slovac orphan we picked up on the streets because her clothes are so wet they are touching the ground, as a weapon to hurl at the little girl 3 floors up!
My team is quickly giving up on me... but we have waited so long!! We are too close!! And then the clowns show up.. followed by a clown balloon that is basically kissing the street because the wind is so strong, the handlers have to keep the balloons very low to the ground... I give up.... I am defeated... I am too wet and too cold to care...
We stop at a little cafe, I take off my gloves and my hands are black...the dye from my leather gloves have stained my hands black!
On the subway ride home the floors are so wet, that when the train makes a sudden stop, I go sliding down the car until some random stranger (not my friends, mind you) stands up and catches me!
The train slowly empty's until Kyle, Tiff, and I all have seats.. the next thing you know Kyle is screaming, "GIRLS!!" because we had all fallen asleep and the doors to our stop were closing... we crammed out.. stopped at the store for some lava soap to get the dye out of my hands so that I can make dinner...
Dinner was great... short of Tiff's ex-boyfriend having no clue when to leave, not that we were done... we were done with him...slow chap!
So maybe it wasn't Mama Beck's finest thanksgiving, but it sure was one of the most memorable!