I survived . . . . .

I survived traveling at Christmas!! I have heard horror stories of traveling during the holidays with all the other travelers and the weather. The Christmas before we got married Ross was trying to go home and due to weather in Denver ended up spending about 24 hours in the Denver airport not even sure he would be able to get a plane out. This trip we were fortunate to have a direct flight from Salt Lake to New Orleans, so as long as we could get out of Salt Lake we wouldn't have any problems getting to New Orleans. There was also forcasted snow for the day we were leaving. However, we got to the airport without any problems, there wasn't any snow, and the line for security wasn't bad at all. While we were standing in line for security there was a guy, I think he was a paid escort for kids, but he was dressed as an elf, complete with the tights and pointy shoes with bells. I wish I had the guts to get a picture of him, it was quite humorous and very hard to miss. When we got to our gate Ross and I got something to eat while waiting. When I was done this random old guy walked up and asked if he could throw my trash away for me, I thought that was very bizarre, and then he came back and started to talk to us. He was quite an interesting individual. I am sure most of his stories were not true but after finding out our flight was delayed an hour he kept us entertained and the extra hour wasn't so bad. When we finally got into New Orleans it was about midnight but we still were able to go to dinner with my mother-in-law. We went to Camilla Grill, its a very interesting restaurant, the counter winds around the restaurant and they cook everything in front of you, and they have some killer chocolate pecan pie.

I survived my first Southern Christmas. The next day was Christmas eve and not much was planned, it was so nice. With us being there for 10 days we didn't have to cram everything into a couple days, we could spread it out and be a little more relaxed. We got to sleep in and just kind of move slow. All we really did that day was in the afternoon, we stopped to do a little last minute shopping on the way to my brother-in-law and sister-in-laws house for dinner. We got time to hang out before we ate, it was really good food. After dinner we went to the grandparent's to open presents. This was the big family get together with the grandparents, the aunts and uncles and stuff. It was a fun get together, we all got to open presents for each other and then had sweets. They were so good and so rich. On Christmas Eve Ross and I slept over at his brother's house and Christmas morning my mother-in-law came over and made monkey bread for breakfast. A tasty way to start the morning. Later in the afternoon we went to the extended family Christmas dinner. That was rather interesting. It was buffet style and some of the foods I have never seen, let alone heard of, before. I went into it thinking "Ok, just give things a try, you never know what will taste good," and I did. I did have to ask my brother-in-law, who was behind me in line, what some of the things were. They had, I think they called it baked spaghetti, and all it was was boiled spaghetti noodles with layers of cheese on it and then baked. To me it looked like something an elder would make for a missionaries dinner and they had it at their big Christmas dinner. I was wondering if anyone really ate it, but Ross said they have it every year and it did go pretty fast. I did get a little to try it and it was really pretty good. I never would have guessed but I enjoyed it. Then we get to the corn dishes. First there was a bowl of cooked corn, simple and basic enough, but next to it was a couple of yellow casserole looking things. I didn't think there would be such a thing as a corn casserole, let alone two different types of corn casserole. But I had decided I would try new things and I got a little of both. Much to my surprise, again, it was really quite tasty. The meal as a whole was good and I liked all the foods I tried, I was actually too stuffed to make it to the deserts.

Unfortunately while we were there Ross' grandpa ended up in the hospital. He had been sick for a little while and it just got worse and I think he had pneumonia. Luckily he got the care he needed and was released 3 or 4 days later.

I survived a Hall family road trip. We, all 5 of us, took a road trip to Houston. I was pretty excited cause I have never been to Houston, other than the airport. It was about a 5 hour drive from Baton Rouge and my butt was numb by the time we got there. We did go over a couple bridges that from a distance look like they go straight into the air, pretty steep roads. We spent 3 nights in Houston and went from one end of the city to the other. We got to go to NASA and see mission control and see some old space shuttles, we went to the aquarium and got to pet some sting rays and star fish, we went to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, we went to see Avatar and went shopping at the 4th largest mall in America. This mall was massive, so many stores, so many levels, so easy to get lost and confused (and we did). On the very bottom level of the mall was an ice skating rink. The 4 of us went ice skating, my mother-in-law decided to watch. I was the only one that had been ice skating before but the last time I had done it was on a date in college, so I was pretty wobbly on the skates at first. It was a lot of fun, I almost took out little kids a couple times. Its a small crowded rink, which made it hard to maneuver safely. But fun none the less. While there my mother-in-law gave us each money to spend, with the stipulation that we spend it that day in the mall and on ourselves. This was pretty hard, I had no idea what to get or what I wanted to spend it on, until I saw a shoe store. I think the highlight of the trip to Houston was the hotel room with the king size bed. We left the hotel in the morning and we were going all day so when we finally got back to the room that night I was so tired and stuffed from dinner that having such a large comfy bed was so nice. I did have to laugh because it was so much like traveling with my family, but I did enjoy it.

I survived 5 trips to New Orleans. I love New Orleans so its quite ok that we made many trips down there, and its only a little over an hour away from Baton Rouge. The first trip was when we flew in and stopped for dinner. Then we went the day after Christmas. Ross' cousin and her husband were in town for Christmas and the husband had never been to New Orleans so they went with us. It was so cold. We just wandered and shopped and ate at the House of Blues, kind of relaxing. The third time we went was on New Years Eve. We went with the intention of finding a way into one of the really old, really cool above ground cemeteries. I don't know why, I just like cemeteries and these ones are really really cool. When we got into the French Quarter we saw an add for a cemetery tour and decided that would be easier to do than try to find our way in and out of a cemetery, and its by the same company that did the vampire tour we did and that rocked. But the tour was for the next day, so we got to make a 4th trip down to New Orleans, but it was well worth it. The cemetery tour was so cool, the not only showed us the cemetery just outside the French Quarter, but we got a history about it and of Marie Lavou and Vodoo, it was interesting and educational. Well worth another trip to New Orleans. The last trip was to go back to the airport when we came home.

I survived New Years Eve better than the neighbors house. For New Years Eve we went over to Ross' brother's house. Grant and Leah had gotten fireworks for us to shoot off at midnight, but also got some extras for us to shoot off earlier. The quote of the night was "is that supposed to be there?" As we were shooting off some of the fireworks (I stuck to the sparklers, too many bad experiences with fireworks) one of the fountains, one that shot other spinning fireworks in the air, misfired and one of the fireballs ended up in the next door neighbors bush. Grant's friend brought it to our attention as their bush was a big ball of fire. A couple of people ran over to pour their beers on the fire, which, shockingly enough, didn't do much to put the fire out. A couple people were trying to get it out and someone went to get some water. Luckily the neighbors weren't there and there really wasn't any damage to the house. A couple min later another fountain shot something in the air that didn't go high enough and ended up having another ball of fire land on the car in the driveway across the street, it fell off the car and spun out on the ground and garage door. Another narrowly missed catastrophe.

As much as I enjoyed the trip it was definitely good to get home and get back to the daily grind. On the trip to Houston 4 of the 5 of us got sick and since we were so busy the whole trip it was hard to get over the cold and it was nice to get home with a day to rest before going back to work. But I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know my in-laws better and to see some new places.