Never too old for tradition

One of my favorite things about Thanksgiving has to be the Macy's Parade. I don't know why, but I absolutely love sitting in my pajamas with my family watching Matt, Katie (well, I guess it's Meredith now) and Al do their thing. It's so thrilling.

Every year my family and I sit around and get excited when we see the parade regulars like the Rockettes, the Charlie Brown balloon, and the massive group of cheerleaders. We always pick on the people who can't lip-synch to their own music track, and I always yell at the marching bands who are in the parade AGAIN when some bands don't get to march in it at all.

We get really excited when we see Santa Claus coming down Harold Square because we know once he crosses that Macy's star at noon on Thanksgiving, Turkey Day is out the window and it's officially Christmastime. We say to each other with Will Ferrel-like excitement "Santa!! I know him! I know him!!"

Then either my brother or I will rush to the basement and bring up one box of Christmas things... and it's always the same box... every year. We bring up the Christmas music and movies first. We might not get to the tree or decorations for another week or two, but the music and movies will always be the first box to come up.

And, there's always ONE movie in particular we'll watch multiple times. It's a Christmas classic around our house. Home Alone 2. Don't get me wrong, we like the first one too. But the second one is far better in our opinion. We will laugh before the funny things happen, just because we know what's coming... and you don't even want to know how much we quote it. This quote is one of our favorites:
"Hello, this is Peter McCallister -- the father. I'd like a hotel room please, with an extra large bed, a tv and one of those little refrigerators you have to open with a key. Credit card? You got it."
Here's another one:
"That was the sound of a tool chest, falling down the stairs.
Or:
"Funnily enough, we never lose our luggage."

I don't know how we became so addicted to this movie, but we have and I love it. We also love the Home Alone soundtrack, which is usually the first CD in the stereo. We will crank up the first song ("All alone for Christmas" by Darlene Love) and dance around and get so excited for Christmas, it's crazy.

And maybe all of these things are silly and maybe I'm too old for those things, but it's tradition at home and it's so much fun.