January 5, 2012

Down in New Orleans Where the Blues Were Born...

 Mike's parents used to have a Little Christmas party every January 6th to celebrate 12th Night or the Feast of the Epiphany. This is when the three wise men made it to baby Jesus and brought him Frankensense and all that jazz. I have fact-checked none of this so it might all be wrong, because here in New Orleans, January 6th, or King's Day (I think some people call it that) is the first day of Carnival Season. Yes folks, Mardi Gras starts on January 6th every year. That means the good people of New Orleans get one week between the Xmas holidays and the start of Carnival to dry out and eat like normal people and then we get right back up on the horse - we eat King Cake and drink have parties and dance in the streets like crazy people right up until the day before Ash Wednesday. And then we repent. And we quit eating sweets and drinking (except for Sundays, of course) until Easter. And then Festival Season begins - Jazz fest, French Quarter Fest, Strawberry Festival, Mirliton Festival...we got a festival for every vegetable and every genre of music. You name it, we got a festival for it. Then summer comes and it's too hot to eat or drink so we're good until Halloween, more or less. And, bam, the whole things starts up again. It's exhausting I tell you.

So, tomorrow night is our Little Christmas Party. Anywhere from 20 -100 people are going to show up at our house (the good people of New Orleans are also not very good at RSVPing or sticking to the RSVP selection) and we will have food and drinks and a live band.

The gumbo is made.



The Christmas Tree is a fire hazard at this point.



But the mirror is masquerading already.



My cousin Beth's beautiful Mardi Gras quilt is gracing the wall above our table.



And Kenny is tired already.

3 comments:

Emily said...

I'll be there and can't wait!!

Elizabeth Ferry Pekins said...

Awww! Thanks for mentioning my quilt. Glad you are putting it to good use. Hope the party was a blast! Sorry we missed it! :)

Laine said...

glad to see some recent posts. Enjoyed them, as always. You really have a way with words.