Thanksgiving Week: Macy's Parade & The Rockettes

THANKSGIVING DAY!!

Ever since I was a little girl, I would always roll out of bed on Thanksgiving morning to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Also...I've seen both versions of "Miracle on 34th Street" 100 times so there was no way I was going to miss the opportunity to see the parade in person.

My cousin Cole and his wife Mandi have lived in Manhattan for the last few years while they've both been attending NYU. They also wanted to go see the parade so they suggested we all meet at 72nd Street and Central Park West at 6:00 AM.

(I put a yellow star approximately where we were.)

Cole and Mandi were actually on top of it and made it to our meeting spot right around 6:00 AM.

...we strolled in around 6:30-6:45 AM...

Across the street, there are bleachers that are reserved for Macy's employees and their families.

 We got to hang out with some hilarious people from Wisconsin.

 Eventually the sun tried to warm us up a bit.

(It didn't help.)

It was 30°F

And when you sit in one spot from 6:30-9:00 AM, it's hard to get/stay warm.

We ate lots of Dylan's Candy while we waited.

(Our mother would be ashamed.)

 The parade was finally about to start!

 The beginning of the parade!

 Snoopy

One of the marching bands & Sonic

 For our mom: Kellie Pickler

JUMP

Jimmy Fallon & The Roots

For our momma: The Goldfish Float

Florida-Georgia Line

 Richard Simmons (in all his glory)

(Just because this is my favorite:)

 I thought this chick's costume was pretty intense.

Garrett was mad that I took a picture of the SeaWorld Float...

(Re: Blackfish)

 Duck Dynasty

Uncle Sam

Kristin Chenoweth

Cirque du Soleil

 How To Train Your Dragon

 Josie had a little NYPD admirer so she convinced him to snap a picture of our posse.

(By this point, none of us could feel our toes. I even had three pairs of socks on.) 

Joe Namath, Hines Ward, Bart Oates

 NYPD Mounted Unit

And the cute little Pooper-Scoopers

 Fall Out Boy

 Pillsbury Doughboy

Toward the end of the parade

 These poor people were complaining they were cold with the window open...

(DON'T START WITH US!!)

So after standing in one spot watching the parade from 9:00-11:00, we decided it was time to go.

We hopped in a taxi and headed down to Union Square and immediately hit up Starbucks for some Hot Chocolate/Peppermint Hot Chocolate/Pumpkin Spice Steamer.

(Former co-workers of mine know that the Pumpkin Spice Steamer is a weakness of mine. I embrace it.)

Cole was amazing and was able to secure us reservations for some"traditional Thanksgiving food" at Mumbles.

AND it was only a few blocks from Union Square.

Thanksgiving Family Photo 2013!

L to R: Garrett, Cole & Mandi Gibbons, Josie, Yours Truly, Bry

Thanks again, Cole & Mandi, for spending a wonderful Thanksgiving with us!

 We were all super exhausted after lunch so we went back to our apartment and crashed for a few hours.

(It was amazing.)

Josie and I awoke from the dead and had to make ourselves presentable to go back to the city.

Josie and Willis bonded. For real.
Not like Josie's imaginary bond with Edgar.

 Back in the city at Rockefeller Plaza

(They don't light the tree until December 4th.) 

 And of course we had to visit the set of our mom's favorite,"The Today Show."

In Ramona's words: "It is NOT my favorite show. I just like to have it on in the mornings...sometimes."

(She's said that for the last 15 years.)

 On our way to Radio City Music Hall

Inside the gorgeous lobby

 The inside of the theatre

 "The Nutcracker"

 "The Parade of Wooden Soldiers" was incredible!

 "New York At Christmas"

 "Snow"

 "The Living Nativity"

(Which was particularly awesome because they had live sheep, camels, and a donkey.)

 "Joy To The World"

 The Finale

 After the show we crossed the street and fell in love with the scene looking towards the theatre.

Times Square

(You can sort of see where the teeny-tiny ball drops on New Years)

 I forced Josie to go to Juniors.

I REALLY wanted some Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake.

And Bryant was adament that we pick him up some pumpkin pie since Josie and I refused to do any baking. Juniors was the only place we could think of that would still be open at 11:00 PM on Thanksgiving night.

Mmmm...Juniors.

Thanksgiving 2013 was by far the longest/coldest/funnest I have ever had.

And it's one I will always love to remember.

Thanksgiving Week: Candy & Big Gay Ice Cream

On Wednesday, Nov. 27 Jumpin' J and I went to the Upper East Side to the always amazing Dylan's Candy Bar.

We were especially excited to find some "Squirrel Nut Zippers."

I honestly had no idea that it was also a type of candy. My only connection to them was through my brother Brock and his love of the band that was only popular in 1996.

(I looked up this video and while I was watching it I realized I know ALL the words. Bryant was a little creeped out.)

  

Here is one more just because I'm feeling nostalgic:

After we stocked up on candy, we went down to Washington Square Park so Josie could see where Bryant goes to school.

We met up with Bryant and Garrett and walked a block from Bry's law school building and ate a romantic fireside dinner at La Lanterna di Vittorio. (Best Speck Pizza I've ever had. Dee-licious) 

(We were fighting over the seats by the fire. It was SOOO cold outside.)

And because it was absolutely frigid outside, who wouldn't think it's a great idea to go get ice cream?

(Me.)

But we went anyway because 3/4 voted for...

GareBear got "The Salty Pimp"

(Vanilla Ice Cream, Dulce de Leche, Sea Salt, Chocolate dipped)

Josie had a chocolate dipped Eggnog cone, I opted for Pumpkin.

Bryant was lame and had a chocolate shake.

--The next post will be about THANKSGIVING DAY!!--

(Wooooo!!)

Thanksgiving Week: Jalusalo's Arrival

Incase you were curious about the title of this post, I shall enlighten you:

Way back in the day when Josie was a pup, our dad would call her 'Jumpin J'. Being the clever little thing, she decided to add to her nickname:

Jumpin J Jaguar Jalusalo

(Whew! Quite the mouthful!)

So the name of 'Jalusalo' has stuck around for some time now.

ANYWAY...

On Tuesday, Nov. 26th, JOSIE ARRIVED!!!

She also opted for the redeye flight so she could maximize her time with her favorite little sister.

As is customary when Josie comes to visit Bryant and I, she always has the bright idea that she's going to tame Edgar. (Haha! Right.)

She visited us Christmas of 2011 and made her first attempt. It ended with lots of blood and scratches. When she got to my apartment at 7:00 AM the first thing she wanted to do was pick Edgar up.

(She's a glutton for punishment.)

Below you will see I captured the two moments she was able to grab him.

Josie hadn't been to New York or ridden the subway before.

She was thrilled to see the trash and rodents:

Our first area we visited was Wall Street

It's crazy to think about the history this place has

Trinity Church

(Built in 1846)

We then walked a few blocks to the site of the 9/11 Memorial. It's "free" to visit, but if you wanted to buy express lane passes online it would cost $4 per person. I thought it was a waste and didn't get the tickets. An hour and a half later of freezing to death in the rain and having to walk past donation boxes that guilt you into paying anyway, those express passes were sounding awesome.

 

By this time we were starving, so we found a pizza place around the corner and Josie experienced her first slice of NY Pizza.

 Our bones were frozen by this point in the afternoon, but we pressed on with our adventures:

 The Charging Bull

Yes, we were too cold/lazy to cross the street.

Battery Park was as close as Josie got to the Statue of Liberty.

(Originally she had wanted to take a ferry out to it, but we quickly ditched that plan.) 

While we were exploring, Bryant and Garrett were sleeping.

(Seriously. They're lame.)

Later that evening Garrett was determined to eat at "Rice to Riches" in SoHo, which only serves different flavors of rice pudding.

(I never thought such a place existed.)

Josie said the Eggnog was fantastic and the Vanilla I had was amazing as well.

That about sums up our first day of touring the city.

Prepare yourselves for more fun-filled posts!

Thanksgiving Week: GareBear & Bry Go To Boston

Thanksgiving Week was by far the craziest, busiest, COLDEST I've ever been.

(And it was awesome.)

To kick things off, Bryant's brother Garrett arrived at our house at 7:00 AM on Friday, Nov. 22nd.

Poor little guy was tired after a redeye flight:

Please note that he has CNBC on, like always.

Later that evening after we let Garrett catch up on some sleep, we went to our dinner reservation at Minetta's Tavern in Greenwich Village.

(I had to call a month in advance and the only time they had was for 5:30 PM.) 

The tavern was opened in 1937. They have pictures on the walls of famous people who used to frequent the place.

They are famous for their "Black Label Burger"

(Here is the link to the segment the Travel Channel did on it.)

Ah-mazing.

Right next to Minetta's is "Cafe Wha?" where Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen, Bill Cosby, and others made their start.

President John F. Kennedy also made a campaign stop on this corner in 1959, which was coincidental that we were there on the 50th anniversary from when he was shot.

After dinner we went to the original Barnes and Noble at Union Square--the world's largest bookstore.

(Bry and Garrett were in heaven.)

They have lots of book readings and book signings by authors on the top floor.

On our way home we made our usual stop at Veniero's. 

We're addicted. It's fiiiine.

I had high hopes for this Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake, but it wasn't nearly as amazing as Junior's version.

Saturday, Nov. 23rd was filled with lots of football and sleeping on everyone's part.

I was determined to have Garrett experience "Smorgasburg" before they moved for the season.

So I forced he and Bryant to brave the wind and the cold to walk 0.8 miles from our apartment to the East River State Park.

Turns out, most of the vendors had left for the day because it was super windy and cold.

(But Willis and I walked to the water so it wasn't a complete waste of a trip.)

The main reason for GareBear coming out so early was so that he (a Patriots fan) and Bry (a rabid, obnoxious Broncos fan) could travel to Boston to watch their teams in action. (I'm sure he just wanted to hang out with us. Who wouldn't?)

Both of these fools have THE WORST sleeping schedules you've ever seen. (Being in the Eastern Time Zone and having sports still be on well into the morning doesn't help. They stayed up watching the Boise State-San Diego State football game until 2:30 AM)

Sunday, Nov. 24th, they caught the 7 AM train from Penn Station and arrived in Boston around 11:15 AM. They were already freezing their buns off and just wanted to go straight to the hotel for a hot shower. Fate would have it that their room wasn't ready for a few more hours. (Wah wah wah...)

They decided to explore Boston for a little bit before they had to be to South Station to catch the train that would take them to Foxboro.

Pre-Game Smiles:

The train got them to Gillette Stadium around 7:45 PM, which didn't give them much time to get through security and up to their nosebleed seats.

Keep in mind that with the windchill the temperature was 5°F.

(Haha...suckers. Willis and I cuddled with my Saints blanket in a balmy 71°F apartment)

The game ended up going into overtime, which Bry and Garrett were not happy about. (They were sure they had hypothermia.)

The Patriots ended up winning, 34-31.

(Bryant doesn't like to discuss it.)

(Garrett also felt the urge to rub in the fact they beat the Saints 30-27 earlier this season. No one likes a sore winner, GARRETT.)

The game ended around 12:45 AM, then they had to take the train back to Boston. They got to their hotel around 2:30 AM. They had to catch their next train back to New York at 6:00 AM since Bryant had class at noon, so they never really went to bed.

They got back to the apartment a little after 11:00 AM. 

Bry went to class. Garrett crashed.

The rest of our insanely busy week will follow...