A Photography Nut Lives Here

I’ve been tagged by the lovely and wonderful Perptacular for this Photo tag!! It’s fun, and I got to see my photo in a different light because of it.

Here are the rules:

1. Go to your picture files
2. Go to your 6th folder.
3. Go to your 6th picture.
4. Tell us about it.
5. Tag 6 friends to do the same.

Hawt Hallapeno Happiness:

Jalapeno Cows on Parade

I took this photo in Boston the summer of 2006. My son and I took an end of summer jaunt to visit my cousin who recently graduated from Johnson and Wales cooking school. Our trip was full of surprises. We left NoLA on the “morning “ the FAA implemented the lovely “No Liquids Rule” That made for fun traveling with an almost kindergartener. Oh yeah, they confiscated a bunch of stuff. TSA was all in a fit. I apparently tried to smuggle a Diet Coke thru security. Then due to the craziness of the Liquids scare, our suitcases never made it to Boston. Oh joy of joys, being on a plane all day, nearly missing our connecting flight at JFK and having *NO* food for my lil one, just to make it to our destination and not have a change of clothes or pj’s. Yep, those TSA bleeps never traveled with kids, I am sure of it, or they’d never had made that awful terrible rule. So we spent several hours waiting for luggage to arrive in Boston. While we waited, we made the best of our adventure and my cousin took us to tour downtown Boston, ate at Legal Seafoods (Yummm!) in the Prudential building (gorgeous) and afterwards strolled up and down the historic streets of Newbury and had Ben and Jerry’s ice cream. This photo was taken that evening. I have been a huge fan of Cows on Parade since I saw them in Chicago back in 1999. I first saw them on Michigan avenue and thoroughly enjoyed the Blue Dog Cow positioned outside Neiman Marcus on the Magnificent Mile. So it was a real treat and a surprise to see them in Boston. Had our travels gone as planned, we might not have gotten to enjoy them. I believe this Jalapeno Pepper Cow was located right outside Niketown. Good memories, Thanks again, to Perptacular, for giving me the reason to look back on them.

Oh and I happened to find this pic from my first Cows on Parade:

Blue Dog Cow - Chicago 1999 Cows on Parade

ps. Our luggage didn’t arrive for two days. Two days! Since our trip was only 4 days long initially, we decided to extend it and shopped til we dropped.

So onto the tagging business:

I’d love to see what the other photography nuts out there have to share, I don’t want to double tag anyone, so if you haven’t already done this, consider yourself tagged.

2008 Year in Review

1. Drinking buddy of the year
Cindy and Lesli

2. Lifetime Service Award (longest friend)
Tammy

3. Newcomer Award (newest friend)
All my new plurk friends!  I love you all!

4.  High Point of the Year
Seeing Tammy at Thanksgiving.

5.  Low Point of the Year
Learning that my BFF Tammy has breast cancer.

6.  Best Holiday
Christmas.

7.  Your Song for the Year
Well, thanks to iTunes and its ‘most played’ feature, Party Like A Rockstar by the Shop Boyz, tho I don’t remember listening to it that much.

8. Movie of the Year
I’m not much of a movie-buff, but movies I saw and liked, War Inc. great flick..John Cusack, Sex and the City, yeah, I know.  Shut up.  And Righteous Kill.  Have yet to see the new Bond movie, and Indiana Jones.

9. Most Memorable Moment of the Year
There were many memorable moments, but I’d have to say it’s a close 3-way tie between taking my guys to see my hometown for the first time, our Snow Day in December and having front.row.center.seats at Eddie Izzard’s show, Stripped, for our anniversary vacay.  Oh and seeing my son’s face the first time he looked through his new telescope, being able to share my love for the stars with him is one of the highlights of my life.

10. Best Laugh of the Year
At the moment I can’t recall a specific laugh event, although the holidays this year were filled with much joy and happiness, more so than the previous years and for that I am really grateful.

11.  Whom did you spend Valentines with?
My lover ~ my friend ~  my husband and my Aunt who’s birthday is on Valentine’s Day and my son.  We got to spend my Aunt’s birthday with her shortly after she lost her sister.  It was truly special to be with her this year.  Alex gave her a stuffed animal named “Valentine” and we ate at this wonderful restaurant, Black Woods and had the best table in the house with a breathtaking view of Lake Superior.

12.  Best Relationship
The one with my husband and my son.  We have a beautiful family and I’m so grateful for it everyday.

13.  What were you for Halloween?
A stockbroker for Bear Sterns, hubby was a werewolf and firstbourne was Jango Fett.

14. Restaurant of the Year
Mr. D and I thoroughly enjoyed our date nights on CCD nights at Coffee’s Boiling Pot.  Delicious seafood and the best crab claws in the South.  And nice big glasses of vino.  Mmm.

15. Book of the Year
World Without End, Ken Follett

16.  Best Decision Made This Year
Mr. D quitting smoking (even tho I had no idea he decided to it, I’m so grateful he did it and it’s been such a good thing for our family)

17.  What are your plans for next year?
Travel, school and hopefully lots fun and good times.

18. TV Show of the Year
That’s a three-way tie between Burn Notice, Californication and Entourage

19. Most Loyal Friends
You know who you are, and I’m truly blessed to have you in my life.

20. Biggest Change of the Year
Second Grade has been a change for us, as we’ve not been blessed with the magic we have been so lucky to have had in prior years.  Also, painting the spare bedroom was huge change/challenge for many reasons, which I won’t go into here and now.

Christmas Shopping

[Apparently I didn't publish this post when I wrote it before Christmas, so it's a little out of order. Oops!]

The year’s big shopping day for firstbourne actually included, you guessed it…firstbourne. As we drove across the lake, I kept thinking to myself, ‘I am so screwed, I am so freakin’ screwed. “How am I gonna shop for a 7 year old while he’s with me?” The words -EPIC FAIL- flashed like a neon sign in my brain.

About half way across the 26 mile bridge separating me from the mall, firstbourne curls up with his pillow and says, “I’m just gonna rest for a bit.” Now don’t get too excited, because this child NEVER sleeps in the car anymore. Hardly never, ever, ever. So I thought nothing of it.

Minutes later, we hear the soft rhythmic breathing of a…drum roll….sleeping seven year old. OMG! It was 6:30pm. What the… My first thought was, oh no, he’s sick. Seriously, he doesn’t sleep in the car. We were completely caught off-guard.

We arrived at the Toy’s R’ Us. Boy still asleep. So we took turns shopping. We both figured we could knock out the “toy store” before he woke up. He sat up at one point, said something and flopped back down in his pillows. thatwasclose. Whew. We did it.

Off to the mall. At this point, we figured if he slept anymore, he wouldn’t sleep that night, so we tried to wake him. (This goes against parenting policy rule #1…You wake ‘em, you take ‘em. But at some point, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.) And we tried to wake him. No.such.luck. The boy was out. So off I went, into the mall, alone, to conquer and purchase.

I returned after I could no longer carry the shopping bags in my arms to a still-sleeping boy. Now, I’m getting a little concerned. It’s around 9:30pm. I’m hungry and tired. And I’d like to go sit down somewhere and enjoy some PF Changs dinner. Let’s just cut to the chase, it didn’t happen. We drove around and finally happened upon a Popeye’s chicken so we got a “little snack.”

Then it occurred to us that the Copeland’s light display was up and not too far away from where we were. Seeing as how it’s the last year they’ll be doing it, we definately wanted to go. (R.I.P. AC) So off, in pursuit of gawdy bawdy light displays, we headed to Transcontinental Drive.

Christmas from the Copelands

35 years of lights

Ginormous Tree

Coffee and Beignets

Sleeping Beauty

Morning Call and Lakeside News

As we waited in the extremely long line of traffic, I happened upon a delightfully unsecured internet connection, bliss at last. Seriously, I need help. Firstbourne is still zonked out. And yes, we still tried to wake him, to no avail.

Sleeping Beauty

At some point, the Mister and I decided if firstbourne was going to sleep the whole time, we were getting a free quasi-date night so we made the most of it. We really wished he had been awake to enjoy our adventures, but it was a blessing in two ways. a) Shopping turned out NOT to be the epic fail I thought it would be. b) we got a little quality time together over the holidays that we don’t usually get.

Coffee and Beignets

We stopped at Red Lobster and got take out. Yep, we still couldn’t wake the boy. Since it was such a beautifully warm night, we headed to Morning Call and enjoyed some cafe au lait and beignets to finish off our evening.

Morning Call and Lakeside News

By the time we got home, it was after 1am and as my hubby was carrying a sleeping boy up to his bed, he stirred again. Then he jolted awake and proclaimed, “Mom, I slept for an hour” (Shhhh, we’ll never tell. He got 6 wonderful hours of sleepus uninterruptus and fell back asleep shortly thereafter. Again, another close call, he could have been awake all night.)

A Holiday Meme from Meme to Youyou

How’s your Mama ‘n dem? If you’re from New Orleans, you know that’s a greeting that will be heard hundreds of times over the holidays.

I’m finally getting around to posting this fun little holiday meme. The holidays, this year have been a little frazzled, but we’re in the final countdown of Operation Santa Claus and I thought I’d take a moment to share some of our fun traditions.

Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?
Both depending on the gift. I love to wrap presents for firstbourne because it is so much fun to watch him tear thru them. A living room full of wrapping paper is one of my fondest memories as a child.

2. Real tree or Artificial?
Both. We purchased an artificial a few years back and they are so easy. Christmas plug and play. But firstbourne usually wants a real tree, so one of our traditions is going to the same Christmas tree farm and cutting down a Louisiana Leyland cypress. It’s a fun time, usually involves a hayride, except for this year, our tree got brought in on a golf cart. It was a hoot. All of us and a 10ft tree on a golf cart was quite a sight!

3. When do you put up the tree?
Usually the first or second week of December

4. When do you take the tree down?
That depends on well we keep the real tree watered. Last year we had to take it down early because it dried out when we were out of town. But otherwise, we like to keep it til after the New Year.

5. Do you like egg nog? Nope, but Ashton loves it

6. Favorite gift received as a child?
My first stereo (the one with a turn table and a 8 track player..lol) and my first computer, of course.

7. Do you have a nativity scene?
Yes, one my mom handmade for my grandmother that got handed down back to me. Each piece is engraved with her name and the date it was made.

8. Hardest person to buy for?
n/a I love to shop

9. Easiest person to buy for?
Alex

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Again both

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

Because I can’t stand to dwell on the negative, I’m passing on this question and replacing it with my own:

Best birthday/Christmas present ever? For my 16^th birthday, my mom gave me a Neiman Marcus credit card with a monthly spending limit!! My Mom always made my birthday special, no matter what.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?
I don’t really have one. Tho I do enjoy the annual Christmas specials like Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer, and Charlie Brown’s Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever I see something that would make a good Christmas gift.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Nope.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Christmas cookies and assorted baked goodies like banana nut bread. I love my Holiday Peppermint mochas from Starbucks!!

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree?
Again, depends on real or fake tree. The fake one has tons of clear ones already on it. But with the real tree, I love the glow of multi-colored mini lights with a string of the big old-fashioned blinking lights.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Such a Night, by either Elvis or Aaron Neville and Hark the Herald Angels Sing

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home?
Usually at home. We try to see my family every other year at the holidays, occasionally drive cross country to see family. Tis always fun when we hit the snowline in the midsection of the great USA.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers?
Almost , probably, um…no.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
A star that Firstbourne and I found together in 2007. He plans to put it atop on Christmas and make that our new tradition this year.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Christmas Eve. Santa always came after Christmas mass and dinner. Christmas morning was reserved for my birthday, short n simple, my mom always gave me my gift in the morning and then the rest of the day was Christmas. Now we open them Christmas morning, for firstbourne.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year?
People telling me that I must hate having my birthday on Christmas. I have always felt so honored to share my birthday with the most special day of the year. Just don’t wrap my birthday presents in Christmas paper. Kthxbai.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
On the real tree, We put up ornaments that we’ve collected over the years. On the fake tree, we have a magnolia/southern theme with peach and mint green ornaments. We also started collecting birds last year so I have some cardinals and white birds this year.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
Sautéed Chicken breasts and wild rice served with sour cream sauce and peas…Christmas eve dinner tradition. Every.year.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?
Peace and diamonds. What…I’m a girl.

We’ve got a winner!

Congratulations to the two winners from the Holiday Plurk Giveaway Extravaganza, Biddy of Biddy’s World and Beverly of Beverly’s Yarn Crazy. This was a very special contest and I’m so proud to have been a part of it. The great plurk bloggers that also participated deserve a HUGE shoutout! NAMG, for organizing us, As Kat Knits, Passion Parties by Alana, PQ Nation, Confessions of a Middle Aged Surburban Diva, SU Comments, Random Ramblings of a Stay At Home Mom, I Read Banned Books, The Daily Douz, Popping Bubbles, Puntiglio, Puntiglio Bookshelf, Three Ring ‘Surf’Ace. Our goal of making two lucky winners very happy this holiday season seems to be a Big Win.

For a complete list of the winners, click here:

Holiday Traditions

In conclusion of this week’s Holiday Giveaway Extravaganza, I’d like to share some more ways that our family will celebrate the holidays.

Baking, holiday music, trips to the mall, sneak buying Christmas gifts for firstborn under his nose and cleverly hiding them in the shopping cart, holiday peppermint mochas with red sprinkles on top, gingerbread houses with extra candy decorations, going to see the lights in the neighborhood, holiday parties, lighting the fireplace, turning the heat on in Southern Louisiana, bon fires, shopping in the big city, winter waterfront celebration, pictures with Santa, Christmas cards, putting up the village, setting up the train, more trips to the mall, sending gifts cross-country and getting them their on-time, going to a local tree farm and bringing home a fresh Louisiana Leyland Cypress (firstborn also has small one in a pot because he wants to plant it in our yard after the holidays.)

We’ll also be donating gently used coats and jackets to the local organizations that accept them. Ok, it’s Southern Louisiana, who am I kidding? They’re practically new winter coats. And that’s something I feel good about. It’s for the children.

Here’s a recap of the rules and participating blogs. Don’t forget to enter at all of them. I’ve met some really wonderful friends on Plurk and I’m really honored to take part in this contest.

Have a very blessed and thankful Thanksgiving.

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The Rules:

1. How do you enter? It’s easy — just comment on our blog post for the day.

2. You can enter once per participating blog per day.

3. If you blog and would like to post about our contest, doing so will get you 5 extra entries.

4. There will be 2 winners.

5. Each winner will need to give us a mini bio of your family — ie: ages, genders, wants, needs, likes.

6. We will buy prizes accordingly.

7. Prizes will be wrapped for under the tree and sent without delay!

8. Comments and posts from Sunday November 23 through Wednesday November 26th will be taken as entries.

9. The winners will be announced Black Friday!!!

As Kat Knits

Passion Parties by Alana

PQ Nation

Confessions of a Middle Aged Surburban Diva

Not A Mean Girl

SU Comments

Random Ramblings of a Stay At Home Mom

I Read Banned Books

The Daily Douz

Popping Bubbles

Puntiglio

Puntiglio Bookshelf

Three Ring ‘Surf’Ace

Give and You Shall Receive

Yes, we’ve all heard it.  But today really epitomizes it for me.  In light of giving, we also receive.  Today I got to spend the whole day with my dearest childhood friend.  It was an unexpected visit.  We laughed, we cried, we reminisced and we had a wonderful time.  Over the years, having kids, being married, and lives moving along, sometimes it’s hard to find time to connect with the people we love.  Today’s visit was exactly that and a huge blessing.  We get the chance every couple of years, but this visit was just a bonus.

So while I don’t have too much time to be eloquent, I want to say just how grateful and thankful I am to have had a relaxed day like today to spend with friends that I consider family.   Because I live so far away from my family, the holidays can be hard.  I cherish the times like these, and while I know holidays can also be stressful for family  get-togethers, I hope all of you to to find the good in your holiday festivities.  I know it’s there, even when it’s hard to see.

Happy Holidays, and don’t forget to comment to enter today’s Holiday Giveaway!