The Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

Here in Seattle, it's the day after Thanksgiving. And our balloons are smaller- about the size of a pomegranate. Thanksgiving Day itself was at a friend of my brother's, with the traditional Finnish Braid Bread. I made a double batch this time, so with half as much sugar as usual (only one cup for ten cups of flour), so it was slightly less sweet than usual.











Afterwards it was a rousing game of Gender Gap, where men try to answer questions about stereotypical women's interests, and women about men's. While I didn't know many answers about women, I knew pretty much none of the men's issues.

The following morning was the parade to welcome in the holiday season. Highlights included an actual Sasquatch sighting. (Here in the NorthWest, it's not that we believe in him. It's just that we know he's real.)

















The band I liked the most was the bagpipes, one of my five favorite instruments. (Along with banjo, harpsichord, saxophone, and harp. I'm still waiting to hear a quintet with all five.)








They were followed by an exquisitely painted nutcracker and the Snow Queen. While there were plenty of tributes to the Santa Claus religion, there wasn't a single reference to Jesus, the whole point of the holiday the parade was supposedly initiating.














Everything finally wrapped up right below the Needle.