The Most Wonderful Time

So here's something most of you don't know about me. It never occurred to me that this was one of my "things;” you know those quirky habits, traditions, preferences that make each of our life stories so interesting. Anyway, I didn't know it was one of those until I mentioned it to my best friend last week and it was something that she never knew about me even though we've been friends for 18 years.

I love the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Love it. Love it to the point of obsession. I love the balloons and the Rockettes and the Broadway numbers and all the different performers. I love the cheesy worn out jokes the Today Show hosts make as parade commentators. I watch it every year. No excuses, nothing that supercedes it on the television. I am so compulsive about it that we don't have an early dinner and won't go to anyone else's house before it's over. Most years I won't even answer the phone while it's on.

I don't really care about any other parade either. I can take or leave the Parade of Roses, 4th of July parades, even parades at Disney World. But the Macy's Parade is sacred. I cry when the cut the ribbon at the beginning, cheering "Let's have a parade!" and I will not turn it off until the credits roll over Santa as he makes his way through Harold Square. I've watched it polishing silverware as a young child, I've refused to let anyone out of the hotel room when spending Thanksgiving in Florida; I've made my children turn off movies and cartoons and Christmas specials to watch it. This year, I even Tivo'd it.

And yet, I could never go see it live. Why? Because I couldn't see all of it from the parade route. The ideal situation in that case would be to reserve a room in a hotel along the parade route - one with a veranda that I could sit on and drag the television out onto so that I wouldn't miss the commentators or the Broadway shows or the ribbon cutting.

I don't know why I put so much stock in the parade. I do know that in the very rare years I didn't watch the whole thing it made it very hard for me to get into the holiday spirit. Maybe it's the innocence of the parade, maybe it's because it reminds me of all the wonderful memories about the holidays when I was growing up. But I think I've been obsessed with this parade since the first time I saw it.

I hope that all of you are blessed to have something in your life that you are attached to because it evokes such wonderful memories.