Happy Thanksgiving

It's Thanksgiving morning, and so of course I am sitting on the couch watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

One of the posts that blogger destroyed last week was about the parade, and my grandpa.

There is a big Thanksgiving Day Parade in Detroit, and, several times when I was growing up, my mom and step-dad took my siblings and I to watch the parade in person.

I recall those mornings as being cold and crowded, although, as a child I was much less wary of large crowds than I am today. (I hate being in large crowds. It's not fear so much as I really just hate being crowded and jostled. I cannot describe the feeling precisely - it makes me extremely tense.)

As we would leave to go to the Parade, my grandpa would shake his head and say, "You know, it's a lot more comfortable to watch the parade from the LaZBoy with a cup of coffee."

And on the Thanksgiving mornings that my parents did not take us downtown, I would sit in the family room with my grandpa, with a cup of cocoa, and we would watch coverage of both Parades - New York and Detroit.

I have very fond memories of those mornings, and it doesn't really feel like Thanksgiving to me, those times when I don't watch the Parade.

My grandpa died on the Sunday after Thanksgiving seven years ago. I did not watch the Parade with him that last Thanksgiving, which I regret to this day. But, since he's been gone, I watch the Parade, and I imagine that grandpa is sitting in his LaZBoy, with his coffee, watching it with me. It's one of the things that I do at the Holidays that reminds me of my childhood.

(As much as I would like my children to watch the Parade with me, they are 100% disinterested. Evidently, they don't love a parade.)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

LM