Happy Thanksgiving! Guess where we went this morning? To the "McDonald's Thanksgiving Day Parade" in downtown Chicago! I've been wanting to do that for years, but with young children the thought was always a little overwhelming. This year with the warm weather and bigger kids we were ready to go. I was up by 6:30am, made pumpkin donuts (a Thanksgiving tradition in our family) and we were out the door by 7:30.It was fun! I've watched the parade on TV for years and while it's not Macy's Parade in New York, it's pretty darn close. We parked ourselves on the curb across from the Harold Washington Library. From there we could watch the big balloons ducking under the 'L tracks. The balloons were my favorite part - seeing them up close was pretty cool. My husband's favorite has always been Kermit, but my youngest daughter and I agree that Elmo & Dorothy got our votes.
The kids seemed to enjoy themselves. All three girls pretty much sat enthralled almost the whole two-plus hours. Thankfully it wasn't too cold. Everybody's feet were nearly numb, but that was the extent of our chill. Can't say as much for some of the cheerleaders and dancers in the parade. They come from Florida and Texas to Chicago in November! What are they thinking?!
There were a lot of horses in the parade this year. It was sort of this theme they had. Dominick's sponsored all the horse groups (why? what do horses have to do with groceries?), so every time you saw a Dominick's banner you knew to watch for horses. And horse droppings. Thankfully each group had a clean-up crew (ew!).
Anyway, besides all the incredible things in my life (like my husband and daughters, my family, my church family, a nice home, a good school, etc.) I'm thankful for pumpkin donuts and parades and afternoon naps. We are so blessed! I hope that's how you're feeling today too.
2 musings:
I did not know Chicago had a MCDONALD'S Thanksgiving parade! I lived there for HOW long? Weird. Is that something new or has it been going on for years and years?
Hope your turkey day was great!
-bm
Beast mom,
McDonald's sponsored this year's 73rd Annual State Street Thanksgiving Parade. So it's nothing new, but I think Marshall Field's had their name on it in previous years (and since their new owner has the bigger, better known Thanksgiving parade already, somebody else had to put their name on it).
btw Being the neophyte Thanksgiving parade-goer that I am, I didn't realize the Dominick's horse thing is an annual tradition. Go figure!
-amm
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