New Orleans New Years

We all headed to Houston to celebrate Christmas with the Reaves.  It was fun to all hang out and be together for a bit. Then Derek and I left the kids with his parents and headed to New Orleans.  It was a fun road trip.  We enjoyed talking and laughing during the 5+ hour trip.  It reminded me of our college roadtrips together.

Soon after we crossed over into Louisiana we stopped for some cajun food.  Yummy!  Lots of our time this trip revolved around food. New Orleans is a unique place and we enjoyed exploring the French Quarter, Uptown and the Garden District.

Driving into New Orleans- superdome in the background

Our hotel, The Columns
Quaint hotel, with a very happening bar in the evenings

At the bar before dinner.  

Dinner.  I had some J sparking wine, my fave!

Dinner at Galatoire's- fabulous.  The fried oysters were great!

D out on Bourbon Street after dinner

Listening to some tunes

A kiss for my honey at the carousel Bar- it spins around, pretty cool

On New Years eve, we slept in and then ate breakfast at our hotel.  We went to Lafayette Cemetery and saw  lots of crypts.  The tombstones dated back all the way to the mid 1800's.  It was a little eerie, but neat to see so many family members all buried together. Its one way to make sure your grave gets visited.

 We wandered around the French Quarter. It it is a very unique place. We walked along Bourbon Street and Royal Street.  A little different in the day, but not too much.

We saw several street performers.  They were pretty good!

We walked along the banks of the Mississippi River

D on the banks for the Mississippi

The Mississippi

Boat on the Mississippi- looks a little spooky with the fog

We ate poboys for lunch at Johnny's.  We had to wait in line a while, but they were so good.  I got shrimp and D got roast beef.

Jackson Square.  Behind is the the church the Pope visited and is the oldest continuously active Catholic church in the US.

We ate yummy beignets and  had coffee/cafe au laits at Cafe Dumonde. Very good!  I spilt my drink all over me trying to take a pic of D.  It was very hot!  But, at least I got another drink out of it!!

We had a drink on the porch of our hotel before heading out to Dinner on New Years Eve.

Dinner at Jacques-Imos.  All I can say is awesome!!!

We ran into a work buddy of Derek's on Bourbon Street and he hung out  with us for a bit and took us his to fave bars.

We had fun ringing in the new year in NOLA.  It is a fun, crazy place.

We slept in on New Year's Day and then got ready and went to breakfast.  We ate at Slim Goodie's and it was delish!  Worth the wait.  We left town around 1 and headed back to Htown to get the kids.  We were excited to see them. We had a great little getaway.

Christmas in Houston

We had a great time in Houston with my family for Christmas.  All of the kids enjoyed playing together and the adults had fun talking and hanging out.  We went to the track where Kurt went to middle school and ran and played around.

On Christmas Eve we went to an afternoon service.  It was really good and a great way to keep us all focused on Jesus in all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays.  They had snow and the kids rode a sled down the hill and played in the snow.  Everyone also got to ride a little train.

My parents got a big bounce house.  The kids loved it and were getting pretty wild.  Us adults liked it too!

It was the first time for B & B and Derek to meet Olivia.  There was lots of fighting to hold her!

  On Christmas Eve, the kids set out cookies and milk for Santa.  They also left carrots and sprinkled reindeer dust to help light up the way for Santa's sleigh.

 Santa came with lots of goodies for everyone!

.We had a Puerto Rican fest for our Christmas dinner and it was so good.  Thanks Kellee for making the paella and teaching me how to make it! Pops and Dorrie came over to celebrate with us and it was nice to visit with them.

.The day after Christmas, we went bowling.  The kids had a fun time and Barrett did awesome.  Derek beat everyone on the adult side, but we all did pretty well!

It was a great time spent with family!

Our family Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with our family of 4 a few nights before Christmas.  We continued our tradition of breakfast for dinner and then opened our presents to each other. The kids were both so into it!!  After our presents we went to the Zilker tree.  it was a fun night together!!

Brooklyn with her Ariel doll from B

Derek with his Thundercloud coupons from B

Brooklyn and her barbie horse

B and his new baseball guys

I love these kids!!

Already playing!

Brooklyn playing with her barbies.