Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to one and all! We had 21 for Christmas dinner this year, and as you can imagine the preparations started several weeks ahead of time. It usually takes me a couple of weeks to decorate the house as I like to do it in stages – see how things look and then add or take away. The people who know me well probably don’t believe that “take away” part. The menu sort of evolves also, although we always have the standard turkey. This year I brined the turkey with a mixture from Williams-Sonoma and it was really delicious. My brother in law Geary smoked a brisket also, and at the end of the day there were only a few slivers left. Today I made turkey soup with vegetables and noodles. I usually make turkey gumbo, but since Jeanne brought gumbo for Christmas I thought the soup would be nice for a change.

I’m finally coming to the end of washing dishes and putting them away. I took all of the extra tables down today and the chairs are stacked and ready to go back into storage. Taking the Christmas decorations down will be another project done in stages. This year I hope to get rid of some things that I seldom use.    

My Christmas cactus was very cooperative this year.  Actually, I have two of them and one bloomed early in December, but this one was beautiful and just in time for Christmas.    I wish everyone a new year filled with peace, love, and prosperity.

Happy Holidays in New Orleans

Happy Holidays in New Orleans

The weather was cold and extremely windy   today as Janet and I boarded the ferry for the ride downtown. We were on our way to meet JoAnn and Angela for our annual Christmas holiday lunch and gift exchange. The water was so turbulent that there were whitecaps on the river which made for a little scary ride on that old ferry. We were headed for the Roosevelt and Domenica’s for lunch. The hotel was really busy and all of the parking lots were full as the Saints were playing in town today, but luckily (and incredibly), I found a spot on the street right across from the hotel. As usual, the lobby was beautifully decorated with thousands of lights, and the Teddy Bear Tea had just let out so all of the little munchkins were in the lobby taking pictures with their mommies and their teddy bears.

 

 

              

When we arrived at the restaurant which is inside the hotel, it was crowded with Saints fans in all of their colorful and sometime bizarre outfits. The famous “pope” was there blessing his fans and as he stepped to the bar for a drink I snapped his picture. Ensconced in our window seat, we watched the fans go by outside with their game day costumes. A car arrived and three women got out in these huge shaggy furry coats, and we recognized one of them as Chris Owens. They came into the restaurant, but were whisked away to we don’t know where.

                                                

The food was great – I had a pasta which was made fresh in the restaurant and a rabbit ragu with porcini mushrooms. Yum! Started off with a spiced apple bellini and finished up with coffee and tiramisu. We had a leisurely lunch, a long chat, and then went out into the lobby to take pictures. I loved this statue of a woman holding what looks like a long staff with a ball on the end. This is actually an antique clock which once belonged to Nicholas Cage, but is actually famous for having been at the World Exposition in France in the 1880s. We also had to take a look at the little gingerbread village which is set up in the coffee shop. It has some unique New Orleans touches such as the Mr. Bingle in the middle of the square, and Santa’s sleigh being drawn by the alligators.

           

If you’re in the city, either living here or visiting, I recommend a visit to the Roosevelt – and bring your children and grandchildren to share in the wonderment of the decorations.

Holiday Christmas Sale

As usual, our business always picks up around the holiday seasons. We recently held our annual Christmas Boutique and Sale at my house. The weather wasn’t very “Christmasy” and the AC unit was pumping out cool air the entire day. The house looked festive though and gave me a start on my holiday decorating.

 

                                                                                  

    

       

If you missed the first sale, we will be holding a second one this Saturday, Dec. 4th at 19 Beverly Gardens Drive in Metairie from 10 until 4. Come by and see us for some unique gifts that you won’t find anywhere else. Bring your friends for some fun and relaxed shopping. Looking forward to seeing all of you.

                                                                                                                                     

Bayou Beauties

 I just returned from a two day visit to my sister’s home in Slidell.  We had planned on getting some sewing done for our annual Christmas Boutique, but we didn’t really make too much progress.   We did talk about it, and do some planning, but little else was done.  The weather here has been beautiful and I had never been aboard their newly purchased boat, so we decided to go out for a ride late Thursday afternoon.  Captain Bill (her husband) graciously piloted us around the bayous while the two Bayou Beauties reclined with  glasses of wine and viewed the flora and fauna of the waterways.  Does the boat remind you of the African Queen?  All we needed were our long dresses, scarves, and hats.

                   

BACK IN THE DAY(S)

My friends and I have decided that we should leave a writen legacy for our children and grandchildren, so we have started meeting every two weeks to share our written words.  We have found that if we don't do this, then we don't write.  It was very difficult in the beginning to get started, but once the ideas started to flow, it was hard to stop them.

This week, we met at Angelas's house in the Faubourg Marigny section of the city.  Could you possibly miss that bright yellow house?  She actually has two houses, side by side, and they are practically identical.   The second little house is used as a B&B and is often booked way in advance, particularly for Jazz Fest and Mardi Gras.  Her driveway (which is rare in this section of the city) separates the two houses.

      

Sew & Sew

                                  SEW & SEW

I come from a family of sewers – not seamstresses – just people who enjoy sewing as a hobby. My grandmother sewed, my mother sewed and my sisters and I all love to sew. We have different specialities, although at one time or another we have all sewed clothing for our children and now grandchildren. We all have special places to sew in our homes, although some are more elaborate than others. My sister Etchie lost her home in Katrina, and now, in her renovated home she has a large room with big windows that overlook the bayou behind her. Trisha has recently moved to the country, and in order to entice her to do so, her husband built her a special little cottage, just for her sewing and hobbies. Jeanne has taken two now vacant rooms on one side of her house and opened them up into one large room with windows overlooking her gardens. My space is the smallest of all as we converted part of the garage that used to house garden tools and supplies. The space is long and narrow and a challenge to organize so that everything fits in, as you can probably tell by the pictures.

      After many years of talking about it, we have recently opened a small business in order to find a market for some of our creations. The fabric on the chair is a work in progress. We have a standing order to make all of the napkins and guest towels and great fabric coasters for a shop on Magazine St. We have been brainstorming to find ways to utilize the small scraps from some of these jobs, and I have included a few pictures of the results. If you would like to see more items that we have listed, please visit our etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/decorsisters

      

Birthdays

August is our big birthday month.  We start off with my grandson Connor's birthday on the 8th, then move to Erin's birthday on the 21st, mine on the 22nd, my sister's on the 26th and my son's on the 31st.  The only one left out is Jerry, and his birthday is on the 22nd of July.

Now that we've gotten older, Connor is the only one who actually has a birthday celebration.  This year we went out to the Lakefront to have his party.  We decided that would be a great place for the kids to just run around and have fun.  We brought lots of balls and outdoor games and filled water balloons and dragged them out there with us.  The boys seemed to have a good time, and the adults huddled under the shelter where there was actually a nice breeze coming off the lake.

Since Katrina, the lakefront has been in bad shape, but recently there has been a lot of activity going on.  There is  work being done on the streets at this point, but a lot remains to be done.  The lakefront always used to be such a vibrant place and was always crowded on weekends, day or night.  We were surprised that we were able to get a shelter to ourselves for the party with no trouble.  It was a Sunday afternoon, but there were not many people out, which could have been due partly to the sizzling temperatures.  Unfortunately, it was evident that the grass had not been cut recently, and the Mardi Gras fountain has not yet been repaired.  But, the breeze off the lake was delightful, and there were lots of pleasure boats on water - and that was wonderful to see again.

Reunions

 

                                                                                  

In the last year, I have been part of two large reunions.  The first was held last year around this time as we held a reunion for my father's side of the family.  We planned and changed the events and locations several times before finalizing them.  The main event was held at my brother's house and we lucked out and had a beautiful day - especially as all of the fun was scheduled for out of doors.  We were forced to use nametags (although I truly despise them), as it had been such a long time since we had seen some of our cousins.  What a great day - reconnecting with relatives and remembering fun times we had enjoyed as children. 

The second event was held last weekend and the occasion was  my 50th high school reunion!  I know it's a cliche' to say, "where did the years go?", but I have to ask it anyway.  These women are part of the fibers of my life and even though many of us have moved to different areas of the country and not kept in touch over the years, we remain a circle of friends.  When we are together, we are once again those girls in high school who giggled together and agonized over lost loves and bad complexions.  It makes no difference where the event is held or what food is served, the main focus of our party is conversation. We just can't get enough of it.  Over the years we have lost many dear friends, and others have gone through serious illnesses and family crises.  These events seem to draw our circle in closer as we unite in offering support to our friends, our "sisters".  For those of us who live in the same city, we have made an effort as we have gotten older, to connect more frequently.  We now hold what we like to call our "birthday luncheon" .  We meet once a year for lunch at a nice restaurant to celebrate our collective birthdays for the year.  At this age, we can't count on the next 50 year reunion!

JAZZ FEST

I’ve been looking forward to going to Jazz Fest for several weeks now. I had my schedule all highlighted as to who I wanted to hear and where I needed to be at a given time. I figured I could fit the food and crafts in between performances. Yesterday was the big day. The weather forecast was not pretty, but the rain was not supposed to come down until the night. By eleven o’clock, the sky was looking pretty bad, but no rain was actually falling. I put my faith in the weather forecaster and my sisters, my niece and I loaded into the car and were on our way. As we parked the car and started walking to the fairgrounds, we felt a few little drops. No big deal – it’s not supposed to come down until tonight!

 

 

We finally made it onto the grounds and began to hear the first strains of music. We made it to the Acura Stage where Frankie Ford was playing and decided we should get our food first and then find a place to sit and eat and enjoy the music. By the time we reached the food booths, the rain was beginning to come down harder, and by the time we purchased our soft shell crab sandwiches and Cuban sandwiches it was really raining hard. We ran for the nearest shelter and squirmed our way right into the middle of the tent , and the rains came down….and down…and down. Even tho we had our rain parkas on, we all got soaked, (but not as much as the people sitting on the edges of the tent). The lightning was flashing and the wind was blowing the rain around. The mood inside the tent was still festive however. One man borrowed Jen’s rain parka so that he could make a beer run. We were located directly across from the food booths, but the rain was so fierce that nobody wanted to leave. Finally, Jeanne couldn’t stand just looking at all the available food, and decided to make a run for the gumbo. She got soaked, but the gumbo was worth it!

After a while we disregarded the rain and made a run for the Gospel tent where we stayed for a while. We heard one group and then part of Shades of Praise. We were hoping to stay for Irma Thomas, but the weather kept getting worse and we still had to make a run for the car parked several blocks away. We left before Irma, didn’t get to see any of the crafts because all of the booths were closed down, didn’t get to buy any posters or music. My son Jay says that’s” part of the whole Jazz Fest experience” – well I guess we experienced everything!

Signs of Spring

It's the first crawfish boil of the season! Actually it's my brother's annual crawfish boil that first started to celebrate his birthday. Every year he adds a little something new. This year he teamed up with my sister Trisha and her husband to celebrate the big event. His son Bret was chief of the "big boil" and the mudbugs were hot and spicy! There was lots of other food and drink onhand just in case you still had a little room left after the crawfish. The weather was absolutely perfect and the kids took advantage of it and jumped in the pool for the first swim of the season. Ooooh, it was still too cold for most of the adults.

We are just realizing that the new generation of grandkids seem to be all boys, other than Etchie's two little girls who live in Birmingham. There were 5 little boys onhand for the festivities and lots for them to do. Besides the pool, there was a tree house for them to enjoy and then there was the big event of the day, the pig wrestling challenge! Yep, that's right - Bubbie had a little pig, put him in the fenced corral and challenged the boys to try and catch him. Poor little piggie -I never heard such squealing, even from the kids.

 








I visited my sister Etchie in Slidell and took some pictures in her backyard.  Even four years after Katrina, her neighborhood is far from recovered.