Christmas Day Recap

This was our first Christmas not at my parent's house, so it was strange but nice to wake up at our house. We enjoyed sleeping in, and then lounged while watching the rest of Bad Santa. We also watched a few episodes of Jeopardy! (we like to play along) that we had DVR'd before opening gifts.

We made poor Chester be Chester Claus. He grudgingly went along with it.

My thoughtful parents had sent a bunch of stocking stuffers back with us, so we had fun opening them.

Chester got a new pawprint ornament with his puppy cow costume in it that we put on the tree right by the Santa hat pug ornament from Christine.

Then we opened the gifts, with Chester's help, from my Grandma C.

A Target gift card + blanket for me, and Gander Mountain for Adam!

Next, we dug in to the stocking stuffers we had bought for each other and Chester.

Adam hit this one out of the park and got me some of my favorite candy (Good N Plenty & Smarties), as well as a pug puppy mini-calendar, and fuzzy socks.

"Did you get the loofah?"  I also gave him some Kahlua coffee, dark chocolate tortue, and popcorn seasonings (chilli lime and white cheddar).

Chester got in on the action too.

We got Chester a bunch of toys to fill up his new toy box including a fleece rope, 2 Occupi (like Kong's), new red squid aka Ollie, and crunchy poinsettia.

He also got some dental chews that were not made in China (surprisingly hard to find!)

Lastly, we exchanged our gifts with each other.

I got Adam a subscription to a fishing magazine, 2 more Port glasses, and the Frabill fishing rod he wanted.

He got me a Jamie Oliver cookbook I wanted and a pug necklace I REALLY wanted. It was made by Chocolate and Steel from a drawing by Gemma Correll. I LOVE IT!

It's even personalized on the back! There may have been tears when I opened it.

After presents, we enjoyed a leisurely afternoon at home and even played a few games on the Wii (we haven't in at least a year!).

Around 3, we headed over to Adam's parent's house to celebrate Christmas with them and Aaron. Adam made his delicious hot artichoke and jalepeno dip, so we all enjoyed that before exchanging presents. We also gave Adam's mom her birthday gift, which was Adam's idea - a bottle of St Germain liqueur (my fav) with tonic water and lemon to make some drinks.

As always, we received many thoughtful generous gifts including a Missoni scarf for me, SmartWool socks, a sweater, and gloves.

Adam received a few shirts, Wild sweatshirt, fishing rod carrier,

and the ice fishing rod locker he's been wanting.

Adam even got Cards Against Humanity from Aaron, which had been on my last minute Christmas list. We were excited to get it!

I also got a nice tote bag from Aaron.

Chester got a soft fuzzy blanket,

and lots of toys in his stocking. He's particularly obsessed with the two squeaking ones.

This year, Chester got a new doggy inspired stocking. It's adorable!

We gave Aaron a Home Depot gift card for his new place, as well as some beer selected because we had toured that brewery in Milwaukee (LakeFront).

We gave Curt and Robin a variety of things including Cafe du Monde chicory coffee from New Orleans, pralines, prosecco, port, a mustard variety gift pack, and flavored olive oil gift pack. Of course Chester was a big help to anyone that was opening a gift!

For dinner, we had Robin's delicious Crab Chowder along with salad and garlic bread.

Then we sat down and played Cards Against Humanity together. It's so inappropriate and hilarious. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

Back at home, we ended the night by talking to my family over facetime. It was so much fun to see them all!

Even though Christmas was different than it has been in years past, it was still wonderful. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve Recap

Lucky Adam had Christmas Eve off of work. He spent it sleeping in, hanging out with Chester, and going to lunch with a high school friend who was in town for the holidays.

I was not so lucky. I was supposed to work until 3, but they let us leave at 2. At home, we started watching Bad Santa, and got about halfway through before we had to leave for church.

We went to 5 pm mass at the Cathedral of St. P, which was beautiful.

The nice thing about going to such a huge church is that there was plenty of room still available and we only got there 15 minutes early by the time we parked and walked.

The singing was wonderful, minus the loud tone deaf guy immediately behind us. He was so loud and bad that even the people in front of us were talking about him. We moved after communion.

We were out of there and on our way to Adam's Grandma's house in the snow by 6:30. They had already started eating when we arrived, so we grabbed some snacks and pizza.

Then it was time for the white elephant gift exchange. Adam's grandma buys a bunch of random small gifts, and then numbers are drawn for picking the presents. You can also steal on your turn. This is key. Adam picked from the presents pile and got a ceramic bowl and kitchen towel.

On my turn, i stole $10 and the Duck Dynasty Duck Call from Jim. I even had to blow in it. Yuck.

Later, Matthew stole it from me, so I stole Adam's gift, and Adam stole the $10 and Duck Call back from Matthew. Matthew opened a gift and got $10 and a hula dancer air freshener for the car.

But then his cousin Luke stole it from Adam. So he stole the bowl & towel back from me, and I stole the hula dancer and $10 from Matthew. And ended up with it when the game was done. Anything with $10 was a hot item!

It was fun with a lot of laughs.

Then all the grandkids lined up for a photo by age,

and then had individual photos taken with Grandma.

I'm not one of the grandkids, but I jumped in for one.

Then all the grandkids got their mini-stocking off the tree with money in it. Adam's little stocking was adorable.

We left at 9:30, and were surprised to enter a winter wonderland outside. It had snowed at least 3" since we had arrived. The roads hadn't been plowed, even the interstate, so that ride home was interesting. You couldn't even see where the lanes were!

At home, I snuggled with Chester and read a book by the Christmas tree while Adam cleared the driveway. We ended the night by watching the original Grinch Who Stole Christmas cartoon which Adam had DVRd earlier that night (I couldn't find our DVD copy anywhere!). It was a perfect way to end the night.

New Orleans Day 3: Museums, Christmas Lights, and Streetcar Frustration

On Black Friday, we had breakfast at the hotel and then walked down to Canal Street to get on the St. Charles Streetcar. We bought the one day pass as we would be taking it a few times that day (pays for itself after two rides).

The streetcar was already there, so we were lucky (we didn't realize this until later when we weren't so lucky), and took it over to the National World War II Museum.

This museum is done very well. We started in the Atlantic Theater section and learned a lot about the war in Europe including a huge section on D-Day and Victory in Europe Day. Throughout the exhibit, there were little side rooms that had short videos; we took advantage of most of these. However, there was so much information that by the time we got to the Pacific Theater section, we were ready to be done. We completely skipped the building with the Boeing Center and movie Beyond All Boundaries (cost extra and was over an hour long).

 

 

You may be wondering, as we were, why the National World War II Museum would be in New Orleans of all places. Here's why -

We were there from 9:30-12:30, and left just as it was getting crowded. If we had more time, it would have been interesting to check out the (Confederate) Civil War Museum across the street.

 

We took the streetcar back to Canal Street, and walked down to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas. The aquarium was okay. It seemed a little rundown, and it didn't help that there were tons of running around screaming and getting fingerprints all over the glass on all the tanks (though they didn't look like they'd been cleaned in a while). We were only there for an hour, and could have skipped it.

We saw some huge catfish,

Lionfish,

"Nemo" clownfish and sea anemone,

and an Albino alligator!

 

I loved watching the penguins,

and the fish with bulgy eyes that reminded me of Chester.

By 2, we were quite hungry, so we walked over to have lunch at Johnny's Po-Boys. The place was packed with a line out the door. We stuck it out though, and were rewarded with delicious food. Johnny's almost has an overwhelming variety of po'boys to select from. Adam choice a fried oyster po'boy, while I had a fried catfish po'boy. Yum. We also shared fries and a rootbeer.

It was 3 by the time we were done eating. Since we couldn't find the shuttle bus anywhere, we ended up walking all the way down to Blain Kern Studios Mardi Gras World. It was quite the jaunt at 1.6 miles, but the sun was shining and we didn't mind too much. Most of the walk was along the ridiculously huge Convention Center.

We arrived just in time for the 3:30 tour. It started out with a 15 minute video about Mardi Gras and Blain Kern Studios. I was amazed to learn that there are huge studios like this that work year round making the floats for Mardi Gras. We couldn't believe what a huge business Mardi Gras is. There are many "krewes" with due paying members. They also pay for their "throws" (giveaways) with their own money. Each krewe has their own parade the week of Mardi Gras with multiple floats. There's usually a signature float or two that never changes for that krewe. Otherwise, the floats are all redone every year to go with their parade theme. It's crazy!

 

Crawfish costume worn for a Mardi Gras Ball in the 70's.

After the video, we were led on a guided tour of the warehouse space where the floats are made.

Then we were allowed to wander around and take photos, 

These flowers were on a float for the super Krewe Orpheus which puts flowers all over their floats.

 

before jumping on the shuttle back into the French Quarter at 4:45.

Before heading up to our room, we stopped at Southern Candymakers to pick up some pralines and tortues. Yum.

We got traditional, chocolate and rum pralines.

We relaxed in the room for an hour and a half, which was a much needed break.

At 7, we walked a block over to Canal Street to wait for the Streetcar to City Park. We waited, and waited, and waited. Finally, after standing in the cold for an hour, the streetcar which was supposed to come every 15 minutes, arrived. We took it up to City Park, and then walked to the Celebration in the Oaks. It's similar to the Rotary Lights back home except you walk through the park instead of drive. 

 

Unfortunately, Adam didn't really want to go to begin with, so combined with waiting forever, he wasn't in the best mood. A beer didn't even help!

I enjoyed it though, even if it was 38 and windy. The poinsettia tree,

and huge oaks with lights were my favorite.

And of course I had to get a photo by the spiders to send to my mom!

Luckily we didn't have to wait long for the streetcar back, so we were in our room and warm by 10:15.

Favorites:

Adam - po-boys for lunch and WWII Museum

Stef - Christmas lights at Celebration in the Oaks, penguins at the Aquarium