John went all out on his Thanksgiving feast, with turkey on the grill, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, roasted veggies, cassoulet, cranberry sauce, and two kinds of bread. Most impressive was Patrick’s DOUBLE shot of dinner, plate piled high both times. All of this food was amazing, and made for excellent leftovers on Saturday. Thanks John for one of the most amazing Thanksgiving dinners ever!

Delicious cassoulet, I gotta make this soon.

Roasted veggies

Mashed potatoes and stuffing

Bird carving

But can you move like Rowan???

Cousins Rowan and Esmee enjoyed some quality playtime while John finished cooking. Rowan loved the tent, and both kids fought over the stroller. Life’s rough for the under 3 crowd.Catherine did an amazing job decorating the playroom. All the adults were jealous of Esmee.Rowan loved the tent so much, he was literally doing sommersaults in it. To avoid injury, we had to put it away. Adults are such party-poopers.The baby goes in the stroller.Interception by Rowan!I’m outta here!Finally, peace is restored.

This year John and Catherine hosted Thanksgiving at their lovely home in Minneapolis. The rest of us came from Brooklyn, Menlo Park and Des Moines. With two toddlers in the midst, there was lots of laughter (and a few tears) to be had. And with a gourmet chef in the house, there were lots of good eats! Thanks to John for an amazing Thanksgiving dinner!

First order of business: family photos

Since I was a little kid, my Thanksgiving tradition has included watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade on TV. So when I moved to NY, my mom asked if I was going to attend the parade. Standing amidst millions of people (mostly tourists) in really cold weather, sometimes windy and rainy, is not my thing. But when I found out that you could go and watch them inflate the balloons the day before, I was intrigued. So this year I ventured uptown, only to discover that this was as much of an event as the parade itself! There were millions of people walking through 2 blocks of larger-then-life inflated characters. It was fun, but an experience I won’t need to do again.

Shrek was one of this year’s new balloons.

Jeff Koons rabbit, also new for 2007.

Dora the Explorer was popular with the little kids in the crowd.

Mr. Potato Head, an old classic.

Pikachu

Snowman

Kermit the Frog

More Macy’s stars

Check out the crowd I was stuck in!

Energizer Bunny

Ronald McDonald

Hello Kitty was also new to the parade this year.

Scooby Doo