THANKSGIVING PLANS

Thanksgiving is my favorite New York holiday because I pull off the same stupid surprise on my unsuspecting guests every year. Just as everyone begins to salivate over the warm pies I’ve carefully placed on the table, I rip away their plates to announce, “Ok everyone…we’ve got a surprise!” Ignoring all the moans and groans, I shuffle everyone out the door and into taxis, all the while the teenagers and old biddies complaining, “But where are we going?”

We jump out in front of the Plaza hotel where Dave** and his six smiling friends from Manhattan Pedicab Company are standing ready for action. I immediately command two or three guests into each carriage, making a point of grouping family members who don’t like each other. Tucked under smelly wool blankets, everyone gasps and holds their breath as we barge our way into the commotion of cars, taxis, and honking on Fifth Avenue. Dodging traffic, we weave downtown past the miniature windows of Tiffany’s, the mile-high red ribbons at Van Cleef & Arpels, Trump’s trumpet players, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the BIG tree at Rockefeller Plaza. At Saks we jump out to have a closer look at the holiday scenes and before heading uptown, we circle back for a peek at the sparkling new windows at Bergdorf’s, the sophisticated windows of Barney’s, and then loop back into Central Park and head on home fore cold pie. Laughing all the way!

Our surprise tour has thrilled our rotating hodgepodge of out-of-town family for the last six years. It never fails to jump start our holiday season and the reviews are always the same: “I was scared to death, but this was the BEST Thanksgiving ever!”