Ellie's First Thanksgiving

See how I wanted to title this post, "Our Last NYC Thanksgiving," but I decided instead that "Ellie's First Thanksgiving" was more positive? Progress!

We had a really wonderful Thanksgiving. We started our festivities the day before, actually. I had a massage gift card I had to use up before we left town (oh shucks, oh darn), so on Wednesday afternoon I took advantage of a little pampering. When I was finished, Ellie and Eric met me on Fifth Avenue and we walked up to Central Park for a bit of a lovely fall stroll.

On the Mall in Central Park

Strawberry Fields

Hanging out in the park with a pretty girl

Those pictures of Ellie and me were taken under the same tree where Eric took my picture almost exactly a year ago, when I was sporting a bit of a baby bump, just after we had found out that our baby would be a girl. What a change in our lives in just one year!

I'm thankful for that baby belly, and even more so for the little sweetheart taking its place this year!

From there we walked north to the Natural History Museum, where they inflate the balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We went to this our first Thanksgiving in New York, although much later in the evening when the crowds were much worse. This time, it was crowded, but not terrible. We were able to get up close to the balloons for pictures when we wanted, and I was surprised how much they had already been inflated. We only checked out half the balloons, because a certain somebody was sleepy, but it was still a lot of fun and something I'm glad we made it a point to do one more time before we left the city.

Eric and Ellie ready to see some parade balloons

Line of balloons being inflated

Eric, Ellie and Uncle Sam

Kermit face plant

Happy Thanksgiving?

At the end (for us) of the balloons

On Thanksgiving proper, we started the day by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. That was the only bummer of the whole holiday, actually. The parade changed its route this year, and marched down Sixth Avenue...right past Eric's office. In fact, if you watched the CBS coverage of the parade, they were actually broadcasting from right in front of Eric's building (he worked in the CBS building, so this makes sense). We had planned to go into the city to watch the parade from his office, for a great view from above. Unfortunately, as I mentioned yesterday, the trains are still a mess after Hurricane Sandy and the ferries weren't running on Thanksgiving, so we really had no feasible way to get into the city. So, no live parade for us. 

We did enjoy watching it on TV though, and it was a nice, leisurely morning also filled with pie-making, Skyping with family, and napping (for the wee one, of course).

Look, guys! SANTA!

Enjoying our Thanksgiving morning!

(Ellie is SO EXCITED OMG that Achilles is that close to her!)

That afternoon, we went over to the home of our friends Jess, Eric and Ada for dinner. They ended up staying in town unexpectedly, so we all got together and ordered a pre-cooked dinner, which we supplemented with our own side dishes and dessert. It gave us plenty of time to visit with each other, for the girls to play, and for us to enjoy a delicious meal.

Ellie and Ada, clearly shocked about something.

Oh, hi there, girls.

Ellie was really working on her "pulling up" skill

Time to eat!

Our wonderful hosts

Ready for our Thanksgiving meal!

I even made Ellie her own pureed Thanksgiving dinner ahead of time: roasted chicken, sweet potatoes and peas. She also had pumpkin with a little cinnamon in place of pumpkin pie. Fancy!

Her first Thanksgiving dinner!

We stayed and hung out a while until the little ones really started to grow weary, and then we called it a day. Back at home, Achilles got a little Thanksgiving treat, too, then Eric and I relaxed with some wine, cheese and crackers to finish out the evening. All in all, it was a perfect last Thanksgiving in New York.

Thanksgiving skyline