A huge crowd turned out to cheer, including Val Bonner, who for over a decade had been planning to attend Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on her 50th birthday.  On Thursday, she got her dream came true, as she joined throngs of holiday revelers to cheer giant balloons and thousands of marchers.
 
Shrieking like delighted children, Bonner, husband Frank and son Jack stood throwing confetti as the 82nd annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, as it wound through crowded Manhattan streets under sunny skies.
 
An excited eleven year old Quincy Kersbergen from Wyckoff, N.J., saw the parade from her perch on a police barricade, declaring herself a huge fan of a giant dog balloon and called the entire experience absolutely fantastic.
 
While, old favourites Kermit the Frog and the Energiser Bunny were back again, ‘Toy Story’ action figure - Buzz Lightyear, Horton, the compassionate elephant from Dr. Seuss and five-story Smurf, a blue, gnome-like creature popularized by a TV show, were new to this year’s revelry.
 
Millions of spectators came out to watch the 82nd annual parade in person, and another 50-million watched the parade, featuring 28-floats, 10-marching bands and performances by Miley Cyrus, Trace Adkins, James Taylor and the Radio City Rockettes, march the 2.5-mile route, from Central Park West and West 77th Street to Herald Square, in front of Macy’s flagship store.
 
Thirteen giant balloons and 31-smaller ones, requiring more than 5,000 cubic feet of helium, were inflated by crews, to be recovered and recycled by supplier Linde North America, once the parade is over.
 
With its beginnings in 1924, the parade cancelled for two years during World War II, also provides coveted spotlight for Broadway productions, featuring cast members of ‘Hair’, ‘In the Heights’, ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘South Pacific’ and Irving Berlin’s ‘White Christmas’, this year.
 
Despite the nation’s economic downturn, the mood along the route was upbeat and jovial.  Thousands braved near-freezing temperatures in hats, mittens and scarves in Detroit, staking prime spots to watch the parade, the city has held for more than 80-years.
 
While for many Americans, Thanksgiving Day will be all about football games, family dinners of tradition turkey, pumpkin pie and too much food on the table, the seven Endeavour astronauts and three space station crew members will have their own traditional Thanksgiving Dinner, floating at the joined space shuttle-international space station complex, complete with ready to be heated smoked turkey and in need of water injections freeze-dried green beans with cornbread dressing.
 
As for President George W. Bush, Thanksgiving will be spent 220-miles below at Camp David, with a huge sigh of relief at his almost-expired ‘privilege of serving as the president’.  President-elect Barack Obama staying over in Chicago, will ‘have a whole bunch of people over to the house, managing to even squeeze in some Christmas shopping indulgence.