My husband, Michael, and I spent Thanksgiving and the subsequent weekend in New York City (Manhattan to be precise). We arrived on Wednesday by train, the coolest way to travel, and checked in to our Wall Street area hotel.

Bright and early Thanksgiving morning we were up to get on the subway to go see the famous Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. It has been a wish of mine to see the parade in person for many years. We made it to the parade route before 7am and were in the 2^nd row of people. It was cold! With the wind chill it felt like 5 degrees. We waited and waited, watching the dozens of law enforcement officers at our block. I have never felt safer. There were sharp shooters, K-9 units and FBI agents. Finally the moment arrived and I was watching the floats, and the balloons, and the dancers, and the bands, and the singers, and the thousands of volunteers, steps away from me.

It was magical and cold. Did I mention I mention it was cold?

My husband left several times to warm-up and 15 minutes before Santa, he went inside to watch. I won’t call him a wimp, he grew up in Jamaica and did not know a childhood full of cold winters playing in the snow until body parts starts to freeze.

After the arrival of Santa Claus, it was over and we went back to the hotel to warmup and call family.

That evening we had a lovely Thanksgiving meal at the restaurant 2 blocks from the hotel, I am an excellent travel planner. After a good night’s sleep, we were up early again to go visit the Today Show. Yup, we were those people. It was cold again, another feels like 5 degree morning. We did make it on TV, yay! We did not make it any longer than that before we had to find a place to get warm.

We walked around the city for the rest of the morning; going to the library, Bryant Park, and Saks Fifth Ave. That afternoon we toured the NBC Studios seeing where Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, and the Nightly News are broadcast from. It was amazing! We went to see Waitress on Broadway to end a wonderful Friday.

Yes, I seemed to gloss over visiting the library. It was cool, it was huge, and it was full of tourists. We were as respectful as we could be considering we were surrounded by people taking selfies while people were trying researching their thesis papers.

Saturday we found ourselves at the, Oh My Gosh it’s busy, Metropolitan Museum of Art. The morning was spent looking at artwork from all over the world. We went to Times Square, which I do not like doing on a tourist weekend, to get tickets for another show. We saw Avenue Q, which I have wanted to see for all 15 years it has been running. Yes, I really have wanted to see it that long. I have the Original Cast Album, just ask my husband. I found out over this past weekend, it will be closing this spring. Go see it, or go see any live theatre. Take your kids, your parents, your friends. Support the arts, you’ll be happy you did. I’m done with my commercial for live theatre.

To recap, we were cold, I crossed something off of my bucket list, and we saw some amazing stuff. Would I do it again? Yes, I would go see the parade again if it was going to be warmer.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a Happy Holiday season.

Families, join us at our Noon Year’s Eve Party, Dec. 31^st at 11am.

Miss Jenn