Last Wednesday night, Thankgiving Eve, I traveled up to the Museum of Natural History with Neil to see the annual balloon blow up for the Macy’s parade in NYC.  It really gets me in the mood for the holidays – I try to go every year. I love the surrealism of seeing these giant cartoon balloons tied down like Gulliver this way, with all the Lilliputian New Yorkers wandering around and gawking at the immense spectacle. Sponge Bob is looking a bit weird with his nose sticking into the ground like that, don’t you think? Peek-achoo being blown up below:

I’m sure I’ve spelled Peek-achoo wrong, but I do know who he is! A lot of the balloons were unknown to me. I felt a bit old, as kids were screaming out names – “Weiner-schnitzel!!” – that meant absolutely nothing to me. I did also recognize this one, Shrek:

It was raining lightly and the mist added to the magical feeling of the night. It helped that Neil was holding an umbrella over me as I was drawing – what a doll! Of course I had to draw my favorite balloon, Kermit:

This was so cool: a woman about 15 years older than me tapped me on the arm and asked me who “that big green character” was. You mean, Kermit?!! Man, who doesn’t know Kermit? : ) I felt so young and in the know. At least, until another little girl ran by me, calling out to a big purple balloon that was being blown up – “Sparkle Doll!” Or whatever it’s called. So another parade goes off and another million turkeys feel the pinch of my favorite holiday. Hope you all had a good one!