It's been my day all week!

Mother's Day to me is just another day - I admit it.

But it has actually been my day all week. I took My Girl to all the Michael's free Mother's Day crafts and sat and watched while she created gifts for me. I would linger by the door near the end and she would hold her completed project behind her back and approach me with a big grin and whip it out from behind her back and yell "Happy Mother's Day"! As if I had no idea what she had. I would play along with big hugs and kisses and fake surprise.

Both kids made gifts at school as well. Some were hidden in the guest bedroom and others in my hubby's car. It was cute.

And for the first time ever I was served breakfast in bed this morning. The kids got a kick out of that. I guess eating in bed is a great phenomenon for them. They also brought me all their cards, gifts and the wooden planters they made at Lowe's on Saturday. They of course had to share my breakfast with me. Like I heard on NPR today - your kids will suck the foam off your latte. Nothing is solely yours as a mom - that includes Mother's Day gifts. For example. My girl made me a fake corsage at Michael's, but 1 hour after receiving it she said she wanted it back.

So what did I do today? Well, after breakfast I took a walk ALONE! But then I was back to being mom. I also spent a lot of time working in front of this computer . . . but it pays the bills so I can't complain.

Mother's Day to me is like New Year's Eve. Lots of build up and little excitement.

Thank you My Girl, My Boy and Hubby for all the gifts.

It's a wrap!

I just realized I haven't posted since December 17th! Well, makes sense. My brother arrived on the 18th as my first holiday visitor. My mom left yesterday as my last holiday visitor! Phew!

So here is my holiday wrap up in random as it comes to me order!

- Severe fog on bridge the night brother arrived. Had to go through Slidell since we couldn't cross causeway bridge. We were 45 minutes late. Bridge was open on way home but had to go 35mph. Was a long night . . .

- When my parents tried to get here they got stuck in Atlanta cuz their first flight was late and they missed their connection. Got in VERY late after much running around the ATL airport trying to get on other flights out.

- My Girl sat on Santa's lap this year! Finally . . . Boy did too, but he did last year. He is not afraid. We attended a Santa party at a friends house and it was perfect. She just watched all the other kids first and then got up the nerve and up she went!

- My Girl got her ears pierced. It was her big idea and she begged a lot! I wanted to wait till her 6th birthday (feb) but daddy gave in (surprise to me!) and said ok a little earlier. She was brave and scared at the same time. Cried a little. Nana was there to see this big life moment for her. She picked heart shaped light pink stones for her first earrings. So cute.

- Went to New Orleans Art Museum for first time while family was here. We were fortunate to accidentlly happen upon Prospect 1 exhibits which were way cool. We all agreed our favorite exhibit was Willie Birch's drawings in the entrance. We also enjoyed the Paul Villinski's Emergency Response Studio. He makes a FEMA trailer green! I hope to be able to get to the Prospect 1 locations throughout the city before it is over. . .

- Took my brother and mom into the 9th ward to see Brad Pitt's Make It Right project.

- Ate at Deanie's, Dragos, Felix's Oyster Bar (hated it).

- Met Chef Leah Chase of Dooky Chase's restaurant. Wanted to eat there but the day we showed up they were closed for a wedding rehearsal. Dang. Did you know she is from Madisonville?

- Visited the Covington Farmer's Market and bought a great pepper jelly, banana pepper mustard, northern white bean salad and some incredible salsa! All homemade and cheap!

- My mom cleaned my house completely twice while here. She even mopped all my floors! Did all our laundry while here. Can she stay forever or at least visit once a week? Ohio is really cold in the winter mom. Just a thought . . .

- Kid's got their swing set that Uncle Greg bought them set up and love it. Nana spent many hours with the kids swinging and sliding.

- Uncle Greg taught my son how to shake his booty to music and now he does it all the time at home and in public. He looks ridiculous!

- My family time was low key compared to last year but nice. We laughed a lot and for some odd reason danced a lot. There was always music coming out of our computer and very loudly. Daddy played DJ and we all danced together. Everything from Christmas to Frank Sinatra to Doo Wop.

- My brother's pipes froze back at his house in Ohio while here. His furnace pilot went out for some reason. He went home to water damage all over his house. His neighbor saw water coming down his driveway from his garage and called him. He told him the code to his garage door and sure enough he had a problem. Luckily he was able to deal with some of it via phone from here. Lots of floors and ceilings to rip out now . . .

- We saw the movie Marley & Me. Made me cry.

- A friend passed away.

A Crafty Thanksgiving

We picked out and trimmed our tree. Son decided that just a diaper and his Home Depot apron was an appropriate outfit for this activity.
I used my daughter's old dress and my son's old jeans (both 6-12 mos sizes) to create these pillows for my mother in law.

We spray painted large pine cones from neighbor's yard green and then sprayed them again with gold glitter. Finished off with red bow and jingle bells. Made 5 of these.

The kids got this Turkey idea from Gigi and they came out so cute.

My holiday recommendations

Need Holiday Cards?
Purchase KidCards by the Children's Hospital patients. They have some very cute New Orleans or Louisiana themed cards! www.chnola.org

Need a family photo for your holiday cards?
My friend Helana Bedeaux is taking holiday family photos. The first session is open Saturday, November 22 at Fairview State Park in Mandeville. The second session will be held Saturday, November 29 at City Park in New Orleans. Appointments will start at 9:00AM and continue throughout each day. www.helanabadeaux.blogspot.com

Need some gift ideas?
BOOK:8 State Hurricane Kate: The Journey and Legacy of a Katrina Cattle Dog

CHILDREN'S BOOK: Two Bobbies: A True Story of Hurricane Katrina, Friendship, and Survival

FAMILY DVD: My Louisiana Sky(We love this mostly unknown movie)

BOY TOY: Kid K'nex Zoomin' Buddies-81 pcs(These are awesome for 2 and up!)

GIRL TOY:Jakks Pacific Girl Gourmet Cupcake Maker

BOY OR GIRL: Skuut Balance Bike(Guarantee your child will be able to ride a bike in two weeks!)

FOR MOM: O, The Oprah Magazine (1-year)

FOR DAD: Atari 2600 Classics 10-in-1 TV Games

FOR WHOLE FAM DAMILY: LEGO® Creator Beach House

Need gifts to send? Try these sites:
www.oldtownpraline.com
www.whitewoodfarms.com
www.booksonbabies.com

Happy Holiday Shopping! Feel free to leave your own recommendations in the comments!

Christmas in New Orleans

Well, the family is all here and we have been busy to say the least! When my parents arrived on Tuesday we headed straight from the airport to The Galley (2535 Metairie Rd) - my dad's favorite restaurant. I had the crab cakes with crawfish sauce and have to say they are my second favorite New Orleans dish next to Drago's crawfish ravioli!


Hubby and I planned a lot of meals and prepared some in advance to make meal time easier. We didn't want to spend so much time going out to eat and deciding where to eat. We made turkey/sausage gumbo, crawfish pies, hungarian soup and pulled pork sandwiches.

On Saturday morning we had a family photo taken by Katherine Bentz. It is rare we are all together and my mom has wanted us to get a family photo done so that was our Christmas gift to her.

On Saturday night we got to involve my family in a tradition we have participated in since we moved here in 2004. Our neighbor Patty and her husband Frank always invite us over for a Spaghetti dinner which is immediately followed by the decorating of Gingerbread Houses. Now, this is not your typical gingerbread house decorating. In fact, I will bet money you have never seen anything like it before! Patty prepares a homemade house and constructs it for each person. Then, she lays out the candy to decorate it. Imagine 10 -12 cookie sheets filled with those single serving pie plates each filled with a different kind of candy. Her table probably seats 12 people or more and we all sit around it with candy covering the table and barely leaving room for us to decorate our houses. We each get our own loot of icing in icing bags with tips to adhere our candy to our houses. It is amazing and gets bigger each year! My family just couldn't believe it and loved it. Here are our works of art!






On Sunday we finished our christmas shopping, wrapping, preparations. We cooked some steaks and boiled up some shrimp for dinner. My brother couldn't get over the size of the shrimp we have here!


Today we headed into New Orleans to take my brother for his first tour of the French Quarter. We had lunch at the Bourbon House which was a good choice for all. It was chilly outside, but we walked all over the quarter and took in the street artists. This gentleman below could really play a mean harmonica and had a pretty good voice!






After our visit to the quarter we returned home to set up the neighborhood's traditional luminaries. Many houses buy them from a neighbor and set them along the road in front of our houses to light the way for Santa.

After some fun with fireworks we read "The Night Before Christmas", set our cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and rudolph and then put the kiddies to bed. Once in bed my mom and I prepared our breakfast casserole for the morning. We put the gifts under the tree, stuffed the stockings and now at 12:07 pm I better put out that fire in the fireplace so Santa doesn't burn his bottom and get to bed! I leave you with this very sweet photo of what my daughter put together for Santa tonight.

My Holiday Poem

The halls are decked
The lights are strung
The house is clean
The Hungarian cookies are done.

The to-do list was long
I fretted and puffed
We worked diligently
to get all items checked off

Tis the eve of family arrival
All three are tucked in tight
Hubby has stomach flu
I hope the littlest sleeps all night

The house is silent
The dog is snoring
I take a deep breath
And apologize for this poem being so boring!

I sit here in silence
anticipating my family's arrival
and hope that we make it through
without an episode of Survivor!

He He!

Happy Holidays ya'll!

The Grinch is posing as Santa at Lakeside Mall

So today I took my son to see Santa at Lakeside Mall since I was over that way for another reason. Figured I would kill two birds with one trip.

When I arrive at the Santa area there is no one in line so I take a look at the picture price list. Just as I start to read it the photographer comes up and says, "Just come on over." So I take my son up to Santa she snaps a few pictures has me look at them. I find one I like.

"Do you know what package you want?" she asks.
"I think I want that wallet package . . ." and I start to walk back over to the price list.
I get there and say, "No, I want package E."
"Oh, I already hit print." She says.
"Well, I don't want the wallet package now that I've had a chance to look at the price list. " I say.
A tall balding man who had been standing there the whole time who must run the operation says, "You said you wanted the wallet package and she already printed them so you can't change."
I argue that I didn't say for sure what I wanted and that she hit print before I made a decision and now I have to live with it? (NOTE: Both the wallet package and Package E were the same price.)
"Yes, ma'am," he says and gives me this mean look as to say I better not argue with him.

So there I stand wanting this cute picture of my son with Santa for his first time and I have to take what they are giving me or just go. I pay and walk away infuriated and the photographer lady could tell. She was trying so hard to be nice to me.

I walked away ready to scream out obscentities. My face had to be so red. As soon as I walked out of the exit area I circled back around and went back in the entrance line. I stood patiently in what was now a bit of a line. The photographer was ringing someone up and saw me. She caught my eye and waved me back over. She told me she would refund my money. I said, "No, I want pictures, I just want the package I want which is the same price!" She said ok and went back to the computer to print it out for me.

In the meantime, the tall balding guy started berating me. I asked him if he had any idea what customer service was. He continued telling me how stupid I was that I couldn't understand the price list! The photographer kept telling him to shut up (literally!). She was trying to get him to just not say anything but he couldn't help himself. He told me that NO ONE has ever had a problem reading their price list and understanding it and I should have made my decision and stuck with it. I stood my ground and said that I didn't even get a chance to read the damn price list! He went on and on in front of all these people. The people in line for pictures were all watching. One lady was shaking her head. I looked at her and said, "Make sure you know which package you want and read this list before they hit print!" The photographer came back to me with my pictures and asked me not to say anything to her customers since she was making an effort to fix the situation for me. The tall balding guy said something to her that I didn't hear and she snapped back that she would pay for them out of her paycheck! I looked at her and apologized. I told her how much I appreciated her efforts and that I did not mean to cause a problem and I hoped she had a nice holiday. She apologized for the tall balding guy's behavior. (I think she knew she had made a mistake hitting print too fast and felt bad.)

As I started to walk away with my new pictures the tall balding guy reached over the counter and handed me the wallets I originally had and said since I apologized he would let me have the wallets for free. I took them out of his hand and threw them in the garbage sitting right next to the counter and walked away.

What is important to note here is that the package I ordered was 1 5x7 and 2 3.5 x5 pictures and the wallets were just 8 wallets. Both packages require the use of ONE sheet of photo paper and a little ink. Seriously, how much money is he losing to rectify the situation with a reprint? I am not stupid. If you have ever been there you know the prices they charge and know that they are making a killing!

On a merrier note, the lady at the train next to Santa is a dream! Both myself and the fellow in front of me only had a $20 bill to pay for the $1 ride. She didn't have change for even one of us. She said, "Just let the kids ride and when you get change while shopping or eating just come back and pay me!" We both promised. By the time all the kids got on she finally had change and made change for both of us while we waited for the kids to ride. A lady walked up next to me with her son and looked in her wallet and discovered she only had 75 cents. She told her son she needed to go find an ATM. I reached into my pocket pulled out a dollar and handed it to her and said, "Don't go looking for an ATM. Just take this and let him ride. Merry Christmas" She insisted I take her 75 cents and thanked me. The train lady overheard us and said, "Give her that dollar back. Just give me your 75 cents. That will do."

Merry Christmas train lady. Thanks for being so polite and changing our moods!

As for the tall balding photo guy. Well, he is a Grinch and be sure to tell him so the next time you are at Lakeside Mall!

Three family movies I recommend.

Looking for a good family movie to purchase as a gift this holiday? Here are three I recommend.

1. My Louisiana Sky

2.Dreamer - Inspired By a True Story (Widescreen Edition)

3. Because of Winn Dixie

Monday Jambalaya

- My BF Jen drives a Chrysler Pacifica and it is my second favorite car (behind the 2001 Saab Sport Wagon I used to drive) Anyway, Chrysler announced they are no longer going to make that vehicle anymore! I thought it was one of their best!Oh well.

- My friend Greta is organizing Operation Mardi Gras 2008. For more info go to: soldiersangelsla.org.

- If you haven't heard about it already there is a search engine out there that is powered by people. It is called Mahalo.com. Check it out.

- My husband said the recipe for never being lonely as a mom is having two kids. He couldn't have nailed it on the head any better!

- My daughter got shy around an older boy this weekend and it was weird. She literally hid from him and would not go in the same room he was in. He is 13. She is only 4! Oh lord . . . he we go.

- My 16 month old knows how to throw his sippy cup in the sink when he is done and to pick up lint, dog hair, string, paper, etc from the floor and put it in the garbage. Teach 'em to clean early! (It wasn't intentional.)

- I am mentally preparing for the holiday craziness creeping up on us. Now, if I can just find time to undecorate from Halloween and get those decoration put away. Ugh.

I am going to help you with your holiday shopping!

I have compiled a list of toys I recommend (because they have been tried and tested by my own kids) as well as books that we love to read. Find the links on the right over there. Also, I have compiled a list of New Orleans based businesses that you can support by shopping online at their websites this holiday season.

I will be adding to all the lists as I think of more so keep checking it!

Now, get shopping!