Christmas down south

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all!!! It has been awhile and it has been a CRAZY couple weeks! We'll back up a couple weeks til the beginning of break.

I flew home on the 19th of December.  Good quick flight, which ended in a minute wait on the airplane for a gate.  That definitely annoyed me, especially since I had plans, which ended up being canceled, little did I know it wouldn't be the first time of the break.  After the parents picked me up, we took off on the the 4 hour drive to pella.  We spent Saturday night and Sunday morning in Pella (seeing the new baby and watching the kid's Christmas program).  Then it was back the 6 1/2 hours home.

I was home Monday and Tuesday.  But during those days the craziness begin.  We started hearing the first words of the blizzard, so the decision was made to leave on the 23rd instead of Christmas day.  So, while I was home I got to have lunch with Sam and go to a basketball game and that was the extent of it.  So on to the trip

On the 23rd we went to the airport in the cities.  We had all been surprised that we had gotten 10 people switched to a different flight and while there we found out why, they overbooked the flight.  We all made it with the last two making it just as they were closing the doors.  We made it to New Orleans, found our hotel, had some cajun food at Mulates and then walked around a bit. 

The 24th brought us with less options of things to do than we hoped  because of the holidays, but we found a tour to take and we shopped, and walked around.  The only downfall, we got rained on.  Here is where I will tell you about my injuries of the trip (it makes me laugh) The night before we were laying there trying to sleep and my cousin scratched me majorly so I got up to make sure it wasn't bleeding and then went back to the bed.  Once there I realized she had taken my pillow so I was trying to get it back...I saw it and reached for it just as she was going to give it to me leading to an elbow in the jaw.  It hurt bad, but was quite funny and led to a fat lip.  It was really fat right afterwards, but morning it was barely noticeable.  But it made me laugh.  Then on Christmas Eve, my uncle had told my brother they should race up the escalator.  He declined...I said I would.  so off I took running up the down escalator (it was a really long one believe me) IT was going well until I was almost to the top and my legs were burning and I managed to trip.  It wasn't horrible but I was left with a swollen knee (its still a little swollen lol) but it didn't hurt bad.  But now I can say I ran up the down escalator and in flip flops lol. 

Later that day we took the plantation tour.  It consisted of driving to a plantation, seeing what it was like, eating supper and then we went out to the bonfires.  No one in my family had any clue as to how big this bonfire thing was.  The story behind it is that they build these bonfires on the levy of the Mississippi on Christmas Eve to light the way for Papa Noel to bring presents to the Cajun children.  There were about 120 bonfires lit and they were big, usually they are more ornate but the bonfires almost got cancelled for the year due to excess rain.  It was still kind of cool to see.  There were fireworks, bonfires.  It honestly felt like 4th of July on Christmas Eve. 

On christmas, we didn't do much because nothing was open.  Went to the casino, Harrah's for awhile to look awhile and I did do a few slots (first time gambling ever) came out 2 dollars ahead lol.  But it passed the time.  other than that we just hung out and played cards.Well since we're almost to cruise day, I'll update about that tomorrow since this is getting really long! Later!