Christmas week

We had Christmas at our house on Sunday the 21st, the morning before we flew down to New Orleans to spend Christmas with Sean's parents and the Charbonnets (including Gillian's greatgrandmother, Adee). Unlike last year, Gillian really got the opening presents thing, and she pretty much refused to do anything without Baby Jesus from our Nativity scene for a couple weeks before that...and she had so much reverance for him. No pretending he was eating or going to bed. Just gentle touches and kisses. Very odd.
Christmas day for us was cozy. We couldn't help but think that next year will be more wild-but it will be here in our own home. The biggest gift for her was a drum set-fully functional, and a real instrument for kids 3-11 years old. She has shown such an ear for melody and rhythm that we wanted to encourage her. Obviously music lessons on melodic instruments will come, but she is just not able to process the discipline of lessons just yet, so we'll hone her rhythm skills for now. Sean built her a little stage with a little rug (complete with Christmas lights) to perform on. Here is a clip from her first jam session (punk rock Twinkle Twinkle Little Star-note the angst!):


Monday morning we headed out to the airport, and had a seamless check in, thanks to Sean's secret check in area and secret security line (if we had gone the way of Everyone Else, we definitely would have missed the flight). Timing was great, but then we sat on the plane for an hour. An hour of inconvenience seems like a blessing compared what might have happened had we tried leaving in the afternoon. O'Hare flights were a disaster for days after we left due to snow and ice.

Nonni and Grandaddy met us at the airport and Gillian went right to Bill like she sees him every day (Skype literally removes any weirdness between her and them after time apart). And just like last year, Sean's bag was lost by United (though last year it was everything but the carseat, which was fortuitous), and delivered after midnight. Gillian was sure she was in heaven with all that attention, and there was no shortage of hugs and kisses for her!! We stayed at the Hotel Provencial, which is a lovely old collection of buildings in a wonderful part of the French Quarter. We usual stay with family, but the usual digs were all booked with other relatives in town for the holidays, so it was a treat to stay in the Quarter, steps away from Cafe DuMonde and the French Market, and everything else we wanted to do aside from visit family.

The first night we had an intimate dinner with Adee, the Thornhills (Suzi's sister's family), as well as her cousin and brother. Gillian is *in love* with Suzi's sister Alyce ("Leesie" as named by her grandson) who she met once on Skype and has been enamored of ever since (she has been talking about her for at least a month), and they played all night with a tub of plastic bugs.
Wednesday was a wonderful day. Nonni and Grandaddy walked Gillian to the Audubon Aquarium in the morning while Sean and I slept in until 9, lounged around and mosied over to Felix's for a fat filled and delicious lunch of Po Boys, etouffe, and Oysters Rockefellar. Gillian had a three hour nap, and then we decided to go out to Jackson Square to hear some music. We danced to the music of the guys that are always in the same place, every year, playing Dixieland Jazz for tips. They had a young little white kid tagging along this time, who by all accounts was pretty amazing on his trumpet and singing.


Gillian enjoyed the street musicians and artists, especially playing guitar with the Gilly-sized puppets:


That night, we had dinner at a place with a giant blow up Santa and Penguin that Gillian had to give a hundred hugs and kisses to before she would grudgingly leave (to the amusement of others in the restaurant), and then we took her home and put her to bed and Sean and I headed out to Preservation Hall for some excellent and very traditional Dixieland jazz. The Hall is all about the music-no frills, rickety benches in an "L" shape in a pretty small room, no beer, no food, no smoking.

Christmas Eve day dawned bright and warm, and heavenly. Gillian got to go to the playground for the first time in over a month, but not before she experienced her first beignets, which, like any sensible person, she loved:

That evening was the big Christmas Eve party at Adees where Gillian was one of the 16 great grandchildren under 8 years old present that night, and it was a wild and crazy evening (Santa came, even!). A huge pot of crawfish etouffe filled the entire house with the smell of Christmas at Adee's, and visiting with all the aunts and uncles and cousins was wonderful and overwhelming, as always. Christmas Day was low key, with a small group for lunch, and we got on an empty airplane and flew home. The day we left New Orleans it was sunny and 80 degrees, and we arrived home to 4 inches of ice in most places (a couple on our windshield in long term parking) and as much as 8 on the sides of the road and bitter cold. In spite of that, it was nice to be home. We all had a blast and so appreciated everything Nonni and Grandaddy did to make the trip hassle free!!