Not Quite a New Orleans Know It All (Yet!)

I seem to have become a guide of sorts in the past couple of months. Not only has my family been in town for Thanksgiving, but Alexander came through for a visit and my best friend drove back to New Orleans with me after Christmas. Being a guide is like a crash course in learning about all things New Orleans. Why is there a middle ground? I honestly don't know. I've heard about the legends, but I can't give you a historical answer. Where do you live? Uptown! Where in uptown? Just uptown! What part of town does Project Homecoming work in? Gentilly (I always hesitate for a moment, even though I know this is true), but we are moving on to Pilot Land. How far are you from the french Quarter? About twenty minutes. How far are you from work? About twenty minutes. How far are you from the Brees? About twenty minutes. I've become a pro at giving directions and attempting to answer questions I have on business answering. No, I have no idea where Kathy Bates is living in New Orleans right now. That being said, I know my supervisor's sister saw her at a book store a few weeks back. Where was that bookstore? Good question.

Over Thanksgiving I had the privilege of puppy sitting for a friend of mine. Blog readers, meet Wade…

 My brother and Wade got along swimmingly. I think it's because of their similar temperaments.

Meet my other foster puppy, Luna:

Unlike Wade, Luna refused to be bribed with snacks and stomach scratches. While she was wonderful the whole week, she clearly missed her momma. Wade, well Wade can't help that he loves a good belly rub.

My brother and sister stayed with me over the Thanksgiving holiday my while my parents got a hotel room. I know my parents think they got the best deal, but look at how much fun Daniel and I had the night of Thanksgiving dinner!

My favorite part of Thanksgiving was going to City Park for wine and cheese and other picnic like foods. It was a nice break from the constant directing/navigating/pretending to know where everything was in New Orleans.

After Thanksgiving Alexander decided to spend some time in the Crescent City. He has some amazing extended family who let him stay at their house for his visit. Not only did I enjoy spending time with him, I loved spending time with Julie, Ryan and their two daughters. They are a wonderful family and their kids are awesome.

The Saturday after Alexander got in he went to Lafayette with the YAVs. We had a service day, he went to visit his childhood friend. Near the end of the day he got roped into wearing a santa hat and coloring with kids while I helped families shop for gift baskets to take home for Christmas.

And of course, we spent some time exploring the New Orleans night life. He's really happy about it! I swear!

See! That's more like it. Basically the 10 days he was in New Orleans were wonderful. It was nice to show him this city. The second weekend he was in town I went on a YAV retreat. I only have one picture from the retreat and I think it explains how much fun the weekend was.

Anna Leigh and Alyssa clearly love each other. While Alexander stayed in New Orleans, spending time with Julie and Ryan, I headed to Feliciana Retreat Center for the YAV retreat. Basically we played dominoes and ate delicious food and had a great time. It was awesome. 

Christmas was great. I'll get to that in another post. Cora, who is a wonderful human being, drove from Dallas to New Orleans with me. While she was here we did lots of fun things like wander around the French Quarter and go down to Frechmen St.

This is probably my favorite picture of the visit. Isn't Cora so awesome and adorable and clever? Yeah she is!

While we were on Frechmen a brass band started playing on one of the street corners. I just couldn't resist a perfectly instagrammable moment!

I have been sick the past couple of days, but I did a lot of exciting things over the holiday season. Here's a sneak peak

• Christmas in Dallas
• Christmas in Oklahoma
• New Year's Eve in Nola
• New Year's day in a car driving to North Carolina
• Montreat College Conference
• Getting the last things together for the Project Homecoming Gala
• Catching some kind of horrible cold
• Recovering from that horrible cold

See what I mean! Lots of exciting things. I made quite a few New Year's Resolutions, and one is to get back into this blog. And actually update it, even when I'm swamped with work and YAV life and things.