Turkey

Happy Turkey Day!
We stayed in NYC for Thanksgiving this year, but we were not without family. We were able to spend the day with our 'New York family'. Not everyone was in town, but we were very thankful for those that were and wanted to spend it with us.

Our festivities started Wednesday evening at the Pre-Thanksgiving day balloon bash. They blow up all the balloons in the few blocks around the Natural History Museum, and it's open to the public to kind of peruse at their own leisure. Well, joke is on the public, because there is no leisure and no perusing to be had. The crowds were absolutely out of control.  There were a few times we thought about turning around, but this was our friend Cecilia's first trip so we shuffled through a few blocks of waiting and 45 minutes later, we were in!

The crowds to get in (it was just as bad the other direction)

 It was almost as crowded once you got in...we only stayed to see half of the balloons, but saw the important ones:

Charlie Brown looking for his football 

Kermit (note the silver pouch Barry is wearing - that is Sloan)

Hello Kitty

Worth noting that this was also Sloan's first subway ride! I am pleased to announce that she survived, and so far is not sick.

Thursday was even busier (but much less crowded) than Wednesday evening. Barry was in charge of the menu and put on quite a show. He put the years of training to use and fried his own turkey!

The bird before it went in

fry, turkey! fry!

A man and his bird. 

Perfection! 

All in all, it was a stellar evening. We had fried turkey, green bean casserole, cranberry dressing, stuffing, two kinds of squash, gumbo, rolls, all sorts of potatoes, and a few green dishes just in case someone was watching what they ate. All in we had 13 grown ups and 2 young ones (Sloan and David John Castricone) at dinner. Heath and Jen were in Alabama for the Iron Bowl so they were gracious enough to let us use their apartment to host the crew.

It was all delicious! 

 And finally, one last photo to sum up what Barry and I are most thankful for this year...

our little turkey