Hey Mom!
Today is Thanksgiving here in the United States! This holiday is always on the fourth Thursday in November and not actually on a set day like Halloween and Christmas are. It is a holiday where you are supposed to be thankful for the things you have.
I found a good website that explains the history of this holiday! If you want to learn more, you should go here.
I woke up this morning to a home cooked meal! This meal included biscuits and gravy, bacon, and scrambled eggs. Biscuits and Gravy is a very popular dish in the Midwest, South, and Northwest of the United States. The gravy is usually made from pork sausage grease, white flour, milk, and pieces of sausage. It may sound kind of gross, but it is in fact REALLY good!
After breakfast, we decided to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on television. Macy's is a HUGE chain of shops in the US and they host a Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City every year. This was the 83rd parade that the store has held. 83! Mom! That's WAY older than me!
Since it takes place in New York City, there was many Broadway productions that perform a song for the parade. One of them was for Shrek. Apparently it's a musical now!
Next came the Radio City Rockettes. These ladies are known for dancing in the US during the Christmas holiday. They are well known for line kicks they do, like what they are doing in the photo.
In the Macy's Parade, there are also many marching bands from high schools all over the States! Here's one I found, but I don't remember where they were from. I was too excited watching to notice.
Another big part of the parade is the balloons! They are MASSIVE and there are a lot of them in the parade. I caught a few that you might know...
Spiderman (he was 78 feet long!)
Kermit (he weighted 515 pounds!)
I don't know if you know him, but here's Pikachu from Pokemon. He's chasing after a PokeBall!
They had these pilgrims with big heads in the parade! Apparently they are a replica of ones from the very first parade.
The Sesame Street gang also sang us a song! It was cool to see Big Bird and friends on TV.
Here's a funny looking fireman balloon I thought I'd show you. I just thought it was cool.
They had many floats, too! Here's one with the Statue of Liberty. Riding on it was Miss America 2009 Katie Stam and the 2009 NYC marathon winner Meb Keflezighi.
Ronald McDonald was also part of the parade! He was not only in his shoe car, but also a balloon. His balloon is one of the biggest balloons in the entire parade.
Here is a float that represents New York City. It's often called "The Big Apple", hence the big apple that makes up most of the float. The Chrysler Building and a taxi cab were also on the float.
The end of the parade came, sadly. Steph said that the parade ends every year with Santa Claus.
Once the parade was over, it was time to eat Thanksgiving dinner. Steph's family has a very typical Thanksgiving dinner. It includes turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, brown dinner gravy, and dinner rolls. I didn't get to get a photo with the food, but I did get a photo of our meal for you!
After dinner, it was time for dessert. Steph's family has the traditional desserts, too! They had a pumpkin pie, which I ate most of. Don't worry, Mom! I did leave a little for them to eat.
After I ate all that pumpkin pie, I noticed that they had apple pie, too! I had to have a slice of that as well. My, this food was REALLY good!
Once I ate all of my pie, it was time for yet ANOTHER tradition of Thanksgiving: watching American Football. The Dallas Cowboys play football every year on Thanksgiving and since the men in Steph's family are HUGE fans of the team, I decided I'd watch with them, too.
In the end, the Dallas Cowboys beat the Oakland Raiders with a score of 24 to 7.
Well, Mom, I'm pretty worn out from my events today. I think I may just take a nap. Don't worry about me getting hungry later, though. We have PLENTY of left-overs for me to eat!
Love you!
Cutie