Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

If yesterday wasn't enough, here we are again, at the wee hours of the morning, on the streets of New York. My children can officially say that they have slept on the streets. We arrived on this corner at 6 am to get a front row viewing of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. The parade should be in this area around 9:30am. Alot of sitting and waiting! It is cold and the concrete is even colder.Tim and I waiting for the parade...starting to feel like sardines.Tim and Ryan ran back to the hotel to get blankets....Now they are all bundled!Playing a few hands of "21" passed the time.....All 9 nine of us waiting for the parade to begin. The first balloon.....The Sesame Street float....Cee-lo Green.....Snoopy coming down the road...Neil Diamond....After a last minute trip to Chinatown, we are on a plane headed home.... What a wonderful week! We have so many things to be thankful for...friends, family, and time to share memories together.

Celebrating Celena's 40th birthday...Dawn to Dusk

Birthday celebration began at 5 am as we all got ready to go to the Today Show. We were there at 6 am and shocked to see the thousands of people who had apparantly been there for a few days. After circling the block, we settled on a location behind the stage, but still where we could view the corner office of the Today Show. Much to Celena's surprise and delight, Usher joined Beeber on stage...making her birthday off to a great start! We could only see Justin Beeber and Usher on this jumbo screen, because they were under a tent due to the rain.The Museum of Natural History...remember this dinosaur from "Night at the Museum?"The kids loved all the exhibits of the animals and fossils....We decided to try the canoe rentals one more time at Central Park.....closed due to the rainy weather. UGH! Oh well, it is just not meant to be.The police force getting their orders for the parade tomorrow.....This is just a glimpse of what we will see - police everywhere!Balloons are tied on this fence around an entire block in preparation for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.....Olive Garden for dinner....Celena's favorite restaurant.Off to ice skating in Bryant Park. Ben had so much patience teaching the kids the basics and some tricks..... Tim still has it.......Emily's hanging right there with him:)Celena taking a tumble....at least she is able to laugh about it!After ice skating we went to Carnegie Deli for some of their famous cakes and cheesecakes....They were to die for. On the way back, we stumpled upon the Late Show. We had no idea it was that close to our hotel.Subway surfers...... A day packed full of fun activities. Happy Birthday to the best friend anyone could ask for. Thanks for letting my family share this day with you!

Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular

Tuesday was our day of rest. We slept in and then went to see the Rockettes perform in the "Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectular." It was amazing!After the show, the girls were able to get their photograph taken with Santa Clause. The show was spectacular indeed! The remainder of the day was rainy, so we took it easy in the area around our hotel.