Louisiana - Xmas - Dec 2013

Christmas Tree at Shawna's Mom's House

We planned to visit Shawna's mom the first weekend in December to celebrate an early Christmas since we were traveling over Christmas and New Year's.  Shawna was supposed to fly in on Thursday night to spend Friday with her mom before Keith arrived on Friday night.  Due to snow storms in Dallas, Shawna was rerouted and flew in on Friday, arriving mid-day and Keith never made it.  The airline had him on a flight arriving Saturday evening and since he would be there for less than 24 hours and then stuck there because the flight home would have been canceled, we decided it best that he stay put in Denver. So, Keith caught up on work while Shawna visited her family.

When Shawna arrived on Friday, her mom picked her up at the airport in Alexandria.  The weather was pretty nasty so they drove home instead of going out shopping.  On Friday and Saturday, Shawna helped her mom cook some of the dishes as her mom was planning on having 16 people over for lunch on Sunday.  She also cooked a gumbo which she and her mom had for dinner on Sat night before opening gifts.  Aside from cooking, she spent time with her mom, catching up and relaxing.

On Sunday, everyone arrived for lunch - Shawna's dad and his wife, Nicole, Hunter, Nicole's dad, Pat, Chet, Nicole's Aunt and Uncle, Jean, Ashley, Glenn, Jim and Betty.  We had a great meal of pork, turkey, cornbread dressing, eggplant casserole, bean casserole, mac-n-cheese, gelatin salad and pineapple cake.  Everyone enjoyed the meal and being together.  Shawna's aunt Jean had made her a fig cake so she cut the cakes into slices and packed what she could to take to Hartford with her for the week.

Yummy Lunch - Louisiana Style!