Just show me the parade already!

Yesterday morning, after eating breakfast and commandeering the TV remote back from my children, I switched over to NBC to watch what I thought was supposed to be the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I had fond memories of watching this parade as a child and seeing the giant floats and balloons move down the streets of New York City. Once the commercials were over and the program returned, I saw Matt Lauer with Meredith Vieira sitting in the middle of what appeared to be a hundred or so pots of mums. They were announcing the next segment which was some Broadway production number of some kind. Where's the parade I thought to myself? I noticed a timer in the upper right hand corner of the screen indicating the parade's arrival at some square. So the parade was happening somewhere, they just weren't showing it. After the Broadway number was over, there was a brief glimpse of the parade before they went to commercial. After the next set of commercials were over, I was greeted by Al Roker, who was somewhere by the parade (I could see a marching band over his shoulder), interviewing someone about their upcoming Broadway Show performances. Why can't they just show the parade, I thought again? After the interview, we went back to Matt and Meredith who were previewing the next Broadway number. Who cares about these song and dance numbers? Where is the parade already? To my amazement and chagrin, the parade was not actually shown (other than behind Al Roker or on a cut to commercial) until 9:54 AM! Virtually a whole hour went by of what was billed as the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, without actually showing the parade at all! How could this be? I guess that in order to see the Macy's Parade anymore, you have to actually go to New York and watch it in person!

No love for Thanksgiving

Now that Veterans Day has past, the next big holiday of the year is Christmas. What, you ask? What about Thanksgiving? Oh sure, there will be a Thanksgiving holiday. Most Americans will take that Thursday and possibly the following Friday off to be with their family and eat turkey and watch the Detroit Lions lose to whoever they will be playing that day. But Thanksgiving is a holiday that is going by the wayside. I have already seen houses and businesses with Christmas decorations up. Bell ringers are already stationed at the local grocery stores to beg for your loose change. I even flipped through the radio dial last night and heard a station playing Christmas music already! Now I'm no Scrooge. I love Christmas and what it means to Christians around the world. I love seeing my kids get excited about what they hope Santa will bring them this year. But I think Thanksgiving deserves a little more recognition than just a day to get off work and eat some turkey and pie with your friends and family. We should reflect on what we as a nation are thankful for. Freedom of religion. Freedom of speech. Freedom to vote for whomever we choose to represent us in government. Let's wait until after Thanksgiving to hang the decorations and do our Christmas shopping. Christmas will be here before we know it anyway.

Cruisin'