Louisiana and Texas - Dec 2024

We celebrated Christmas at Shawna's mother's house in Louisiana, staying there for nine nights.  We drove  there, stopping at Ginger and Michael's house in Woodworth to have dinner with them and to stay the night.  We all went out to dinner at Spirits in Alexandria where we sat outside and shared some nachos for the table and a fish dish for our entree.  

Spent the night with Ginger and Michael

The next day, we drove to Shawna's mom's house and for our time there, we worked out almost everyday at Anytime Fitness in Marksville and Shawna did a lot of cooking and baking.  We also caught up with the following people:

• Brenda and Joe - We met them for lunch at Morel's in New Roads - nice restaurant on the river.  We shared a salad and fish dish.  Brenda brought us a delicious fig cake which we ate throughout the week.

Lunch with Brenda and Joe at Morel's

• Ginger and Lydia - We took them out to dinner along with their spouses to Broken Wheel Brewery.  Had our usual crab cake and redfish entree.

Dinner with Ginger, Kurt, Lydia and Mark at Broken Wheel

• Hope and Craig - We had them over for dinner at Shawna's mom's house.  Shawna made a yummy salad and pasta dish and we had pecan pie from Collin Street Bakery (Keith had bought this in Texas).  Before dinner, we had cheese and crackers in the living room.

• Nicole, Hunter, Harmony and Hayden - They came over on Christmas Eve to have gumbo with us and open gifts.

Shawna and Honny

• Nicole, Hunter, Harmony, Hayden and Juanita (Nicole's aunt) - They came over on Christmas Day for lunch.  We had fried turkey, ham and cornbread dressing (made by Chet), green bean casserole (made by Juanita), mac-n-cheese (made by Nicole) and eggplant casserole, gelatin salad and pineapple cake (made by Shawna and Honny).  As usual, there was too much food but it was all delicious!

The crew for Christmas Day

We drove back to Texas on Boxing Day, arriving in time to celebrate with Keith's family.  Margaret, Owen, Josie, Lily and Boone were all there along with Keith's parents - we had picked up Boone on our way in.  We first opened gifts and dialed in Graham so we could 'somewhat' participate.  We then had a late lunch/early dinner of brisket, potato salad, corn, popovers and steamed pudding - yum!

Dodds Clan on Boxing Day