when is the parade?!

I first moved to "the city" from the suburbs over 20 years ago (holy shit, it's been more than 20 years?!).  I moved to my current downtown Chicago location more than 12 years ago.  My first November of living in my downtown condo, I was out walking and saw this banner on the light pole:

I was so excited that a parade was going to take place right outside my window (almost).  I looked at that sign and took note, "okay, parade starts at 8am, but what day is it happening??"  I walked to the next light pole with a banner and studied it looking for the "day" of the Thanksgiving Parade.  I didn't see it on that banner either.  I walked from banner to banner studying the front and back of each banner trying to figure out when the hell the damn parade was going to take place.

It wasn't until three days later that it finally clicked:  the Thanksgiving Day Parade was on Thanksgiving Day!!  Oh yeah, I'm smart like that.

So, every year for past 12 years, I've been woken up around 5:30am on Thanksgiving Day with the sounds of high school marching bands practicing and the man over the loud speaker calling out roll call.  Luckily, I've gained a couple of nephews over the years and now we have a tradition of the boys spending Wednesday night at my place, and waking up early Thursday morning to go down to the parade.  If it is too cold or rainy, we just watch from the window or the terrace.  I've always told my friends that if their kids can wipe their own butts, they are welcome to participate in the sleepover.

And this year, I look forward to Thanksgiving Day Parade number 13 with Cooper and Carter.  Let's hope for decent weather and some rockin' bands and that everyone is able to wipe their own butt.