HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year from the Headmistress and the Headmaster!

Thank you so much to many of you who have inspired me, and for those who have  found something of worth to follow here.  I am grateful to all of you, and look forward to more of your wonderful inspiration in the coming year.

We are spending New Year's Eve in our most favorite place:  our home!

Be safe, be happy, and be healthy!

Lovingly,

Wrapping It Up

 It was a very stormy Christmas Day, and my parents and brother weren't able to come for gumbo, but we did have our younger son and daughter-in-law.  We were also so very fortunate that the tornadoes were just to the north of us--sort of a Christmas miracle.

We leave the decorations and tree up until Twelfth Night, and I thought I'd share some of our home with all of you!

 I got back as far as I could squeeze myself in the corner for this shot of our living room.

Christmas cards from years past bundled and displayed on a tiered stand...

 Reindeer awaiting a Christmas night fire!

The secretary was dressed up!

Sideboard in the hallway...

China cabinet...

On the tea cart...

Little tree (made of a tomato cage) on the courtyard (along with dead plants!)...

Fresh greens and candles in an old wooden cheese box on the table.

I hope that you all had a fabulous Christmas, and are enjoying some down time today (and the rest of the week)!

I'll be visiting these fabulous hostesses this week:

Inspire Me Monday ~ Create With Joy

Masterpiece Monday ~ Boogieboard Cottage

Mop It Up Monday ~ I Should Be Mopping The Floor

Mosaic Monday ~ The Little Red House

Show Me What You Got ~ Our Delightful Home

A Return to Lovliness ~A Delightsome Life

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday  Coastal Charm 

Time to Shine ~ A Diamond in the Stuff 

Table Top Tuesday ~ A Stroll Thru Life 

One Project at a Time ~ A Bowl Full of Lemons

Tuesday's Treasures ~ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Show Me What Ya Got ~ Not JUST a Housewife

Be Inspired ~ Elizabeth & Co.

Welcome Home Wednesday ~ Vintage on a Dime

Wordless Wednesday ~ Create With Joy

What's It Wednesday ~ Ivy and Elephants

Primp Your Stuff Wednesday ~ Primp

Wow Us Wednesday ~ Savvy Southern Style 

Show & Share ~ Southern Lovely

Home Sweet Home ~ The Charm of Home

Home and Garden Thursday ~ A Delightsome Life

Vintage Inspiration ~ Common Ground

My Romantic Home  ~Show and Tell Friday

Flaunt It Friday ~ Chic on a Shoestring

Saturday Nite Special ~ Funky Junk Interiors

My Favorite Thing ~ Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Under the Table and Dreaming ~ Sunday Showcase

Sunday's Best Party ~ My 1929 Charmer

It's Party Time ~ It's So Very Cheri

The Tablescaper ~ Seasonal Sundays

Papa Noel Comes To The River Parishes!

Image from The Times-Picayune

The forecast storms managed to stay away until Papa Noel's way was lit along the River Road in St James Parish tonight!  

What a sight!  After church, we joined the mob:  thousands of people, thousands of cars, and over a hundred bonfires up and down the levee! If you missed the original post about this lovely tradition, you can find it here.

Sadly, I am most definitely NOT a very good photographer (especially at night), but some of you indicated you were interested in seeing the fires lit, so....

Imagine this spectacular sight all up and down the River Road, for about eight miles.  There were fireworks, too.  Maybe in the New Year, I can learn to take pictures at night!

In addition to the thousands of cars, there were TOUR buses winding their way down the narrow River Road with the rest of us; THIS is the way to go!

No Louisiana celebration would be complete without a 'brass band.'  It sounded like Mardi Gras!

Once again, Merry Christmas from the Headmistress, the Headmaster, and staff!

We are awaiting major storms tomorrow; we are so happy that the weather held off tonight!

Allumant la manière pour Papa Noël

South of Baton Rouge, about halfway to New Orleans, the River Parishes have a charming and quite old tradition of lighting the way for Papa Noel (Santa) so he can find the children who live along the Mississippi River.  For years and years, families have been building huge structures that are lit every Christmas Eve up and down the levee.  We have never seen this lovely celebration, but hopefully this Christmas Eve we will be able to along with my younger son and his wife.

Today, though, we thought we'd make a 'dry run' so we would kind of know where we were going and to see the structures before they are lit.  Most of the ones we saw were in Paulina, a little bitty town in St. James Parish.  Each family has a particular area of the levee where they build their bonfires, and we were able to see some already built, and some still under construction.  It looks like HUGE fun, and from what I understand, Christmas Eve is bumper to bumper traffic along the River Road, with great houseparties going on (if you know someone)!

So, here, for your viewing pleasure, are some of the ones we saw today:

Most were the traditional 'teepee' style structure, and some had willow branches around the outside which, I assume, aids the fire (they burn for hours);

Some are built as real structures--I think I might be able to live in that one!  But up it will go on Christmas Eve!

As you can see, some folks can be very creative!

The Headmaster insisted on having his picture made with Santa in a pirogue, which had eight alligators pulling it (sorry, no pics of the gators)!

And this one was especially poignant.  

If we can get our act together after church on Christmas Eve, we'll give this trip a try.

En attendant, le directeur et je tiens à vous souhaiter à tous un Joyeux Noël!

*In the meantime, the Headmaster and I wish all of you a very 

Merry Christmas!*

Saturday Nite Special ~ Funky Junk Interiors

Under the Table and Dreaming ~ Sunday Showcase

The Tablescaper ~ Seasonal Sundays

Masterpiece Monday ~ Boogieboard Cottage

Mop It Up Monday ~ I Should Be Mopping The Floor

Debbiedoo's Newbie Party ~ Debbiedoo's

Mosaic Monday ~ The Little Red House

Show Me What You Got ~ Our Delightful Home

Holiday Cards

Joining Vee's Holiday Card Party

Sleep In Heavenly Peace

Trying to Move -- A Breakfast Setting

I know it's been a very tough twenty-four  hours for all of us; I haven't been able to do much of anything.  Maybe I'm watching too much news and should just shut the television down, and maybe I will.

In the meantime, I decided to do something with the breakfast bar in the kitchen.  Truthfully, the Headmaster and I eat every meal here when it's just the two of us.  The dining table is for more than two!

I started with a kind of 'spring green' placemat (truth to be told, the opposite side is definitely a spring-ish design with blue, white, and yellow...and dragonflies.

 See?  Maybe it will make an appearance after the first of the year)!

The bottom plate is the Pfaltzgraff Winterberry dinner plate;

The plate on top is also Winterberry, but as it is the salad plate, it has the cardinal.

We always use cloth napkins, but these are actually dish cloths from the Dollar Tree, last year.  They reminded me of a great big candy stick!

These goblets are from Pier One last year and I use them for Christmas, Valentines, anytime a touch of red is needed!

And for the 'centerpiece' I have a HL vase (1/2 price as usual) with red apples and limes (faux, of course!).

The dining table behind me is not done yet, but I do have an idea.  I'll be using fresh greens, so I'm letting them soak outside in a tub for as long as possible.  Maybe I'll get to that....soon.

The Headmaster just walked through and asked when I was going to put some food on the plates--

HO.  HO.  HO.

Please, everyone, try to have a good weekend.