Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

It is great here in New York City with temperatures in the mid 60's. Some of my family members left early this morning to go the Macy's parade.
You have to get there by 6 the latest 6:30 to get a good spot to see the floats.There is some tension in the air with the Broadway strike going on. Many of my friends are professional musicians and they now find themselves without work.
Luckily The Grinch Who Stole Christmas is allowed to open its doors tomorrow. There will be lots of musicians in the parade singing hits from the Broadway shows, although sadly much of that you see filmed on tv at 34th St is canned music. These same musicians sometimes do perform live at the start of the parade by 74th St.

Leslie, I agree with you. I think this holiday seems to center too much around eating. It should be centering on the concept of a family gathering, where people get together for good times.

It amazes me how much work everyone puts into the food aspect of this holiday. I was one of them for about 18 years. I cooked for days before Thanksgiving. My family spent the entire day eating. They were spoiled. They never helped me with the shopping or cooking. They sat around all day eating watching tv...the usual Babes on Toyland, Macy's parade, King Kong and often shouting out for more food.
I would be exhausted after cooking and waiting on them all day. They would say in appreciation it was a great holiday, but it wasn't for me. Then there was the fight with the refrigerator to figure out how to store all these left overs. The simple solution was to eat them. So it seemed everyone ate for days.

Now I don't cook. I volunteer in a Brooklyn soup kitchen for several hours. Then I go to other people's homes and play piano as part of the holiday festivities. I get free food. I can bring home leftovers if I want for my family.

This year I am visiting a cousin; her son is my piano student. We have prepared duets. We plan to have an old fashion sing a long....corny I know but it is lots of fun and we are bringing some of the now unemployed Broadway musicians so it should be top notch entertainment. They play clarinet, saxophone and flute.

I bought some wonderful Italian pastries quite expensive but a real treat. Hopefully I will be too busy playing the piano to eat them. One of my daughters was selected for a photo shoot for a dance magazine on Monday so she plans not to eat too much. She is concerned as it is so easy to pack on a few pounds during the next few days. Being a vegetarian she is not a part of all this turkey fuss, but she has a weakness for sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie. She acquired the taste growing up I used to collect all the pumpkins from my neighbors and piano students after Halloween is over. It seemed a waste that many people just throw them away and they were not even carved. They used them as decoration on their front porch.
I took them home, cut them up, and cooked them having several pots of hot water on the stove at one time; these huge pumpkins provided me with enough to make lots of pies for my family and friends. They were delicious although I sometimes cheated and bought the ready made pie crusts...then I started realizing no one in my family really eats the crusts so I just made the same recipe without the crust....sort of like pudding but not quite. It seemed much healthier and I don't think that high in calories although it does have brown sugar and a little molasses. Now that my family is grown and live in different cities I don't have the need to cook so much. I am trying to watch my weight I don't cook in bulk so often.I find it too tempting to sit down and eat half a pie in one sitting. The only diet for me is not to have these treats in my house.

Whatever choices you guys make enjoy today and hopefully put some music in your holiday celebration. It can improve a family gathering. You would be surprise how many people enjoy singing if given a bit of encouragement and it is so much better than just watching big screen tv.

Tina