Thanksgiving in The Bayou

Holy smokes, it's been a month since I blogged!  It's cause we didn't do anything exciting for almost a whole month....and do you know how NICE it felt to RELAX?  We literally made plans to not make plans for a few weeks cause we were so burnt out from running around for months on end.  So November was our down-time month....until the end when we packed up and flew down to Louisiana!  In my mind I can still hear the Tuba and Saxophone street players as I write.  We flew into New Orleans on Sunday and stayed there for a couple days.  Even though Shawn's from Louisiana, I have never been able to go to NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) since he lives in the Northern part of the Boot.  It was SOOOOOooOOOOoo cool! Definitely one of the coolest cities I've ever been to and I already can't wait to go back!  You can't really explain it so even my attempt won't be that great....  But the food is literally THE BEST food you will ever eat, the Beignets are the best sweet food you will ever inhale eat (think: hot fried croissant/doughnuts dipped in a tub of powdered sugar), and the music that floats through the streets is some of the best music you will ever hear!  The buildings are AWESOME with their old paint and brick chipping away to produce the most rustic, beautiful backdrops that all the modern day photographers try to emulate and use in their photos.  But Luisiana's walls are authentic.  They have the prettiest buildings with black wrought iron gates everywhere and the French Quarter has gorgeous architecture.  

We took a horse-drawn Carriage ride through the city and learned all these neat facts and stories while we trotted around.  Lucy and Piper loved the horse, and I loved hearing stories that I had never heard...oh and seeing Brat Pitt's house ;-)  If I was rich, I would LOVE to own a house there someday.

Bruce and Mary watched Lucy and Piper and took them to the Aquarium while Shawn and I walked down Bourbon Street.  I wasn't about to take the girls there,  but I knew that if I was in NOLA I just HAD to see Bourbon, simply because of how famous it is.  It doesn't matter what day of the year it is or what time of the day it is- women are topless all around.  It's gross.  They have tassels and stickers covering them up, but they still walk around like it's nothing (you see it in other cities too: Vegas and NYC, but triple the amount on Bourbon).  It's weird, but it's just something you have to ignore. The restaurants are neat (they have some of the oldest ones in the Nation and they are super rustic because they have never updated them from the old brick walls inside!).  There are souvenir stores with Voo-doo dolls everywhere and, of course, beads.  We stayed downtown half the day and met up with some of Shawn's friends while Lucy and Piper were getting the royal treatment, I'm sure!  Haha!  Shawn's friends are WAY nice and I am so glad I finally was able to meet some of the guys that Shawn calls his Brothers and see him in his element.  They were great guys and Shawn just lit up when he saw them.  It was really cool.  He hasn't seem them since his Bachelor party over 5 years ago!  He turned into a big goofball (you know how that goes) but we all had a LOT of fun together.  Lots of laughter while walking around so that I could see the sights at the same time!

We drove the 5 hours "home" (with a stop in Kentwood on the way- Britney Spear's hometown!!) and Grammy and Paw Paw had a mini pink Christmas tree lit up in the Girls room waiting for them, along with a Barbie Dream House and a doll cradle full of dolls.  It was super sweet.  Aunt Christa helped make their room a girly room and they were so excited to show it to the girls!

That week The Gilleys and Aunt Christa also threw Piper one of the most elaborate birthday parties I have ever seen for a 2 year old!  They sent out glittery invitations the week before and it was all a frilly pink and gold theme, even though it was at Chuck E Cheese! Bruce and Mary rented out the party room for 2 hours! Christa bought a whole bunch of cute party decorations, Mary had custom-made Tutus and shirts for each girl (with a custom birthday hat for Pi), Aunt Margaret spent 3 days making a very elaborate Castle fondant Cake, there were customized goody bags for the guests, and there was quite the guest list!  The girls were BOTH spoiled because not only did every guest bring Piper a gift, but most of them included Lucy as well and she walked away with a whole loot of toys too!  I felt guilty that all these people put so much time and energy into celebrating Piper's 2nd birthday and I wasn't able to contribute anything since we had just flown in from NH.  But my heart was full of gratitude at the pile of gifts I saw from people who had never even met my girls.  I might have shed a tear or two.... Christa and Mary said they were so excited to plan this party since we never get to celebrate birthdays together (because of the distance between us), so they swore they loved doing it!  I am thankful that we have family members who love my babies!  I'm also thankful for the borrowed Luggage bags we brought back home with us to be able to get it all up here!

We also introduced the girls to Maw Maw, which was one of the main reasons we flew to Louisiana in the first place.  Shawn was dying for his girls to meet his grandmother who has had a stroke and many other health scares this past year.  We are so thankful that they were able to hug and kiss her!

The rest of the week was pretty relaxing.  We had big family dinners each night and saw all of Shawn's extended family.  We had a few dance parties with the girls at night, we had 'smores, we played board games, Christa and I stayed up until at least 2am each night talking, and we all made some fun memories :)  Lucy and Piper had lots of fun playing with their big cousin Peyton and even little Murphey who is only 10 months old.  There was also a day that Aunt Christa brought her 7 week old kittens over and surprised the girls when they woke up.  That was super sweet!  They were ecstatic!  Mary, Christa and I did Black Friday (which is something I just love to do!).  We weren't too crazy- we got up at 5:30 and shopped til 11am. The night before we left, Bruce made me a traditional Shrimp Boil with all the Southern Fixin's.  YUM.  I love Southern food! It was SO good to be with family for the week.

Oh, I must mention that on Thanksgiving morning, Shawn, his brothers and Dad went to their soon-to-be Cousin's private land and duck-hunted!  They caught 36 ducks in 2 hours and brought them home for all of us to see.  I am not against hunting, but I don't like seeing the dead animals who had no idea it was their last day of life :(  It was sad to see them all piled up as I was FORCED to take pictures of them since "I have the best camera and our phones make it blurry."  Pfft. But I was actually really happy for Shawn cause he hasn't hunted since we left Colorado and he misses it!  He had so much fun!  The bad part was, someone mistakenly said they were bringing all the ducks to the backyard and Lucy overheard that.....needless to say she was crying and BEGGING me to put her shoes on so she could go outside and see all the duckies! Oops....that was a hard story to cover up...

It was tough to say goodbye, but we will be back January 1st for Christine Gilley's wedding.  At least it's wasn't too painful knowing that we will see them in a month!  Lucy was really sad to leave though.  She told me she really wanted to live there.

We came home at 2 am to a house so cold we could see our breath and no working heat.  Shawn started a fire downstairs, but to keep it going he would have had to stay up all night.  So by the time we woke up in the morning the house was STILL freezing.  The fire most likely only lasted 2 hours and definitely did NOT heat up our upstairs which is where all of our rooms are (the house took 5 times as long to heat up since it was vacant for a week and we had a HORRIBLE Winter storm while we were gone that made National news!).  The girls had a heater going in their room and Shawn and I have a heated mattress pad, so at least we slept semi-warm. But we woke up frozen and we all donned fleece PJs and beanies Sunday until slowly around 4PM when it felt like the house was warm from our fire place.  The heater wasn't fixed until 11:30 AM this morning so it was a cold couple of days for us with temps in the low 30's (but my app said it felt like the teens), high winds, and dreary foggy weather with a foot of snow outside.  It was pretty brutal.  Not to mention we didn't have any hot water and our landlords said they wouldn't pay for us to go to a hotel.  We were cold and couldn't even shower for 2 days (which was worse because of the fact that we spent a day flying- and you know how yucky airports are!).  Needless to say, we sponge bathed and spent 2 days fighting with our stubborn landlords who refused to help us out in any way until the repair man could get to us at 10 am this morning.  It is sad that some people seem to have hearts that are 3 sizes too small....

ANYWAY: Here are the pictures from our week in the Bayou!

This girl was ready to go! She couldn't wait!

Bourbon Street with my Bearded Man!

 Shawn and I with his best friends EVER.

 The girl's having a party in Bruce and Mary's room after the Aquarium :)

 Charbroiled Oysters. SO delish!  This was after we ate bacon wrapped shrimp, fried green tomatoes with craw fish and lobster dip....Food Heaven!  I also tried authentic Gumbo, Jambalaya, and Dirty Rice. SO YUMMY!

The Pi Baby LOVES her Aunt Christa!

 This is how Piper woke up on Friday Morning after I did her hair curly on Thanksgiving.  Oh my gosh, I was laughing SO hard!!! Her hair was soooooo epic!

The Cemeteries in NOLA are so cool with the above-ground coffins!  I was amazed.

 Mmmmm. Beignets from Cafe Du Monde!

 It was so hard to keep this girl away from the cake. She wanted it so bad!

Piper LOVES Olaf ("Lolaf") and there was a Cardboard cut-out of him at her party....well, she made sure that her stuffed animal Lolaf and the cardboard Lolaf were introduced to each other... and they then proceeded to have a conversation. Haha, it was adorable.

Thanksgiving Dinner

 All of Bruce and Mary's Grandkids and their parents! Piper was being a STINKER!

Grammy and Paw Paw have a Jacuzzi tub that makes lots of BUBBLES!

In the Airport on the way home. They were being so sweet and cuddling together while watching a show.  Love these little friends of mine!

 After a day of being chilled to the bone and feeling mad on Sunday night, I decided it was time to decorate the tree in hopes of cheering myself up.  So we had Peppermint Hot Chocolate, listened to Christmas Music and Decorated the tree.  It really did make me happy.  Thank Goodness!

ANYWAY, now that my novel is written, I can FINALLY catch up on more "to-do's" and possibly get to bed at a reasonable hour tonight! Haha, yeah right....it's already 12:02.

Good night Folks!