By Caroline Carter 
Staff Writer
On Thanksgiving morning, many awoke to witness the legendary Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on television. Begun in 1924, the parade has become a highlight of the holiday and is viewed across the nation. Unlike most, sophomore Leah Witham had the opportunity to watch the parade live in New York City.
“My cousins live an hour away from New York City, so [my family] went up over the break,” Witham said. “My family has a tradition of waking up early every Thanksgiving and watching the parade on TV while eating coffee cake. This year, we wanted to see the parade live, and I wanted to mark off something on my bucket list.”
The two and a half mile parade travels through the streets of Manhattan for the holiday season kick off. With iconic balloons such as Snoopy and Spiderman, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is a much anticipated event for many. Some of the parade participants included actors, athletes and TV personalities.
“My favorite part was seeing the Olympic gymnasts on a float,” Witham said. “Gabby Douglas waved to me, and I jumped up and down because I was so excited. The atmosphere was very lively and everyone was in the holiday spirit. There were a lot of little kids watching also, so that added to the joyfulness.”
While some people spent their Thanksgiving morning watching the parade, others opted to get some exercise in before the eating began.
The Capital One Bank Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot, or the Trot, begins at Dallas City Hall Plaza and is one of the largest Thanksgiving Day races in the country. Participants have the option run or walk either a 5K or an eight mile race, and many also choose to dress up as turkeys in honor of the holiday. This year marked the 45th race.
“I decided to run in [the Turkey Trot] because some of our family friends asked me to come with them, and I thought it would be a fun thing to do on Thanksgiving,” junior Amber Omar said. “I had a lot of fun and saw a lot of very interesting costumes that people dressed up for the race.”
Several CHS cross country runners also took the opportunity to train over the break by running in the race. Varsity junior runner Sarah Gibbons was able to participate in the race with her sister and dad.
“I thought it would be fun to do the Turkey Trot since I never really do anything fun on Thanksgiving morning, and I could maybe start a new tradition,” Gibbons said. “A lot of cross country runners went to the race that I saw while running. We like to go out and find cool races to run in that aren’t for school. It was fun to be in the streets of Dallas and see a bunch of them there too.”
While the morning of Thanksgiving was filled with parades and races, the evening was a time for food and football.
At Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, the Dallas Cowboys played the Washington Redskins in the annual Thanksgiving Day game. Though the Cowboys had a second half comeback, the Redskins finished strong ending the game with the score of 38-31.
Several of the attendees in the packed stadium were from Coppell. Some Coppell Youth Football members even had the opportunity to be on the field during the halftime performance with country music star Kenny Chesney.
“During [Kenny Chesney’s] song Boy’s of Fall, several local youth football teams were chosen to go down on the field.” Junior Mason Cain said. “My brother’s football team was one of the teams chosen. It was cool for me to see him on the field and on TV. At first he acted very nonchalant about it, but he did admit eventually that it was pretty cool.”
