My New Orleans Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving has already come and gone. I still feel as though summer just ended. On the other hand, I've been seeing Christmas decorations up on houses for a couple of weeks now. It seems to me that it would be weird to have friends or family over for Thanksgiving when you have Christmas lights and Santas all around. The YAV house is still appropriately decorated for fall with pumpkins and leaf garlands.

My parents came down from New Jersey to have Thanksgiving with me. For the first time, I was the hostess for a major holiday. I was pretty calm about it until I realized how unprepared I was to put on a nice dinner party for actual grown-ups. One aspect of the YAV experience is simple living. Part of that for us means that a lot of our dinner and cookware has come through free giveaways or donations. All of our cups are either plastic mardi gras cups or pint glasses from the Bulldog bar. We also did not have a tablecloth or real napkins. Most importantly, we did not have a roasting pan. Needless to stay I had to make a run to Target, and now have a much more adult kitchen and dining room.

Thanksgiving dinner is a big undertaking, even if it is just for four people. I ended up making turkey (which I brined first), apple cider gravy, andouille cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, Bunny's famous rolls, and a chocolate chip pecan pie. I learned a lot during the 4 days I spent cooking. Most importantly is that turkeys have 2 hidden trap doors, both of which contain a gross surprise. They also do not tell you this on the turkey. Thankfully my mom told me before I began cooking the bird.


One of the other great things about having parents in town (other than cooking tips) is that they take you out to all the touristy places and restaurants in the city. On Friday we went to the Laura Plantation and Oak Alley. Both are on the west bank of the river about an hour west of the city. The Laura Plantation was a brightly colored, quirky looking Creole plantation and Oak Alley was a very majestic and grand southern plantation. They are both still working sugar cane plantations and you could see them burning the fields they had already harvested.






On Saturday, we went to LaPlace to do a swamp tour. My parents hotel set up the tour and a van came around and picked us up along with a couple of other groups of tourists. Our van driver was named Moses and had a voice that sounded exactly like what you imagine a man named Moses to sound like.

On the tour we saw turtles, herons, egrets, raccoons, alligators, and something called a swamp turkey. The tour company clearly trained some of the animals to hang around the area by giving them food. They kept tossing marshmallows to the raccoons and apparently give chicken and fish to the gators. The two biggest gators we saw were about 6 ft long and just sitting in the sun on the bank.

 

Saturday night we went to dinner at Galatoire's. It's right on Bourbon street in the middle of all the chaos. We picked a particularly crazy day to go to Bourbon because there way the Bayou Classic was at the Superdome that night, and the crowds were crazy! Dinner was a lot of shrimp and sauce, but it was fun and fancy. After dinner we went to a bar called dba on Frenchman Street to see John Boutté play. My dad had been talking about Boutté for months and it was lucky that we were able to see him while my parents were here. When Boutté was done, we moved over to the Speakeasy bar down the block. I really like this bar because all of their cocktails are from the 1920's and seem very sophisticated. They also have a live swing trio and two professional dancers called the NOLA Jitterbugs who do really great amazing dances. I always get mesmerized watching them.

Sunday morning I took my parents to First Presbyterian Church, where I've been worshipping most Sundays. After church, I had to make sure my parents got some authentic New Orleans po'boys before they left, so I took them to Parkway Bakery. It's the same place where the Obamas went when they were here. They are also filming an episode of Treme there this week. The po'boys and chili fries were amazing, like usual. We then went to City Park, Audubon Park, and Project Homecoming. For dinner - not that any of us were hungry yet from lunch - we went to Squeal BBQ and watched the Saints lose. The weekend ended with me waving goodbye to my parents as they went back to their hotel on the Streetcar.

I know this is a lengthy blog post that is really just a summary, but it was a really great week for me. I loved having my parents in town. I really enjoyed cooking Thanksgiving. Not having work for a few days was really relaxing. Thanks for sticking with me and reading this whole post. 

Hills and Leaves

It's only been four days since I got back from my retreat, but it already feels like Tennessee was weeks ago. The retreat was really wonderful and came at the perfect time. I think all of us needed to get out of the city and have some intentional down time. I don't know why, but I think it's good for the soul to see mountains (or even just hills) and fall leaves. If it weren't for the fall decorations in the store, you wouldn't know it was fall in New Orleans. Up until last week it was still in the 80's. Also, Palmetto trees do not change colors and lose their leaves.

Eastern Tennessee however, provided exactly the right type of fall. We stayed at our site coordinator's parents' house, which was beautiful and overlooked the mountains (the photo is the view from their house). Friday was really restful, which we all needed. I especially appreciated it because I was still getting over the flu. We got to sleep late and then in the afternoon did a bible study and personal reflections. We read the story of Elijah going into the wilderness and the parable of slaves receiving and investing (or not) their talents.



Friday night, we were free to go out in Chattanooga. Chad knew the city the best as served as our fearless leader. After exploring the riverfront, glass-bottom bridge, and art museum grounds, we went to a fun pub called the Honest Pint. I'm pretty sure it was one of the few times all of us had been out on the weekend together. We also met up with Nate's roommate from college and and old friend of Chad's. I always enjoy meeting my friends' friends from other parts of life. They usually help explain those missing bits. They are also a great source for embarrassing stories.


Saturday was my favorite part of the whole retreat though. All of the Nashville and Atlanta YAV's came and met up with us. We all then when to Chilhowee Mountain for the day. It was so enjoyable to see everyone from orientation again. We had a lot of fun catching up with each other and hearing about everyone's placements. It felt refreshing to have new people to interact with, but they were still part of our same community and were going through many of the same experiences as we were.

On the mountain, we went for a hike to a waterfall (I have actually never seen a waterfall of significant size before). We played cornhole, bocce ball, and badminton. We had a camp fire and made s'mores. We played music and sang songs. At sunset we had a short worship service at a lookout point. It was really just a perfect day.