"Best. Thanksgiving. Ever." posted December 1, 2005 at 12:55 AM
I had the best Thanksgiving ever. Every single thing about it was perfect (except that the Federation of Black Cowboys was not in the parade this year). Pour yourself a glass of wine, this is gonna be a long one. (Click most of these pictures for larger versions)... First of all, there's the parade. Macy's buys what must be the single most expensive bit of advertising in the world by sponsoring this huge and wonderful parade. I've lived in New York for 13 Thanksgivings and I think I've attended 9 or 10 of the parades. I always stand near 40th Street and Broadway (which allows me to go get coffee and a cupcake first at the Cupcake Cafe!). This year was no different, except that Patsy was visiting for a week--more about her visit in my next entry--so I had someone to laugh with at the parade. If you want to see people in their mid-30s act like idiotic children, join us for the parade sometime. We giggled and shouted and clapped our hands. Show us Scooby Doo and hear us imitate his laugh! Show us Chicken Little and guess what's falling? We howled with laughter after finally figuring out that the nose-on-a-stick following Mr. Potato Head was related. The people around us were alternately terrified and entertained by our screaming and shouting of every B-list celebrity's name in the hope that someone would acknowledge us (they all did!). There was a group of women "of a certain age" who wore tinsel garland and pushed shopping carts (going to Macy's I guess) and did a choreographed dance together--they were called the Red Hot Mamas. We talked dirty as they strode by. But we really let loose when the rock climbers on top of a "rock" rhino were dirty dancing on his head. We thought this was family entertainment! Well it was--along comes Sponge Bob and the kids (and me) all started screaming with delight. Patsy kept singing "I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ready!" (You've seen the show, right?) But the highlight--by far--of the parade was the Sesame Street float. As it approached, we were all excited to see Bert and Grover sticking out of the second-floor windows, but being spoiled brats we started chanting for Cookie Monster. Sure enough, Grover disappeared and out came Cookie Monster! C is for Cookie and That's Good Enough for Me!! We laughed to the point of tears as he made faces and waved at us, his googly eyes bouncing around the whole time. The whole crowd was into it and the energy was wonderful. One of the rules of going to the parade with me is that you go early enough to get a good spot (which means waiting for close to two hours in the cold for the parade to even start) and staying until Santa Claus comes to town. Patsy loved it, and I love her for it. We were cold, exhausted, and famished when we left the parade. We headed back to the East Village and ate bacon cheeseburgers at Veselka, then headed home for a much needed nap before the evening festivities. My Thanksgiving tradition is to organize with Paula a holiday meal for friends--we collect money from everyone, buy tons of booze & wine, buy all the food, and then Paula retreats to her kitchen where she prepares superb dishes like brussels sprouts hash, cauliflower gratin, and cornbread stuffing. New additions to her menu this year included cheesesticks to accompany our pre-dinner martinis, a rich and heavenly creamed onion & mushroom dish, and fresh warm biscuits. Wow. Oh yeah, we had a turkey and the potatoes, etc., too. The turkey was a record for us this year: 23.59lbs. Um, that's a lot of turkey. Elizabeth and Mark were so kind and generous to host the dinner at their place again this year. Dinner for 11 people is no small affair, and they are wonderful hosts with a wonderful apartment (and a nice big dining table!). I personally ate and drank like it was my last meal or something. I had two martinis beforehand, then two enormous plates of food for dinner. The brussels sprouts are my favorite, and my two helpings of it were sickeningly large. We bought 13 bottles of wine, and when we left 12 of them had been drunk (and only 10 of us were drinking). Wow. I hope your holiday, Dear Reader, was as wonderful as mine--but really, is that possible?!! MANY MORE PARADE AND DINNER PIX IN THE PHOTOS SECTION. |