mardi gras

Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone! We took baby Cora to her first Mardi Gras parade on Saturday. It was just the family-friendly one here in Pensacola, but it was pretty fun!

Cora hung out in Daddy's arms for almost the whole parade

I had my hands up trying to catch beads and moon pies (my fave!).  Only got smacked in the head once (by beads, not moon pies).

Cora even got some of her own beads!

It was rainy and gross out and my ongoing physical recovery from the birth made it hard to stand up for so long, so we left about an hour into it.  Well, that, and the fact that Cora was screaming her head off.  I'm glad we got to go, though, since I don't know if we'll be living anywhere that does the Mardi Gras thing come next year.  The Gulf Coast doesn't have a ton of reasons to celebrate (hurricanes, oil spills, poverty, etc.), so I'm glad that Mardi Gras is such a big part of the culture down here.

I also had a nurse in the hospital use the term "Mardi Gras season" when referring to when we get cold weather around here.  It caught me a bit off-guard at first, but she's totally right!


 

autumn touches around the house

I don't usually do a lot of seasonal decorating. Usually I'll just change our tablecloth and centerpiece and call it a day. But fall stuff? I actually have some of that!

It probably helps that B and I got married in October, so our wedding colors were a dark red, orange, and yellow.  There were even fake fall-colored leaves in my bouquet.  My aunt did a lot of my decorations (and all my flowers), so I got to keep a few of the centerpieces from the rehearsal dinner.

Yup, I bring this out every year.

The tablecloth was a random gift from another aunt the first year that I hosted Thanksgiving for my parents when I lived in Virginia (before I was even engaged).  She nailed it.

My mom has a friend or something who sells PartyLite, so she keeps buying me stuff.  I've never specifically asked for any of them, but every year I seem to end up with another black cat votive holder.  They're now my Halloween display for the bar.

The one in the center has a fishbone in him :)

That's another centerpiece up there, too, if you were wondering.

All of that stuff was given to me by others.  But this year, I decided to add my own touch.  I've always loved the idea of wreaths, but when I went to store to get one, it gave me sticker shock.  The pretty fall ones were $40 or more!  So I did the only logical thing and made my own.  Spent about $10 total, and it only took me an hour.  I didn't use hot glue, just wire, so I could perhaps re-use the base.  And yes, I had to call my mom while walking around Michael's to get her advice on how to do this!

We don't get a lot of fall color here in north Florida, so this puts a smile on my face every time I come home!

Have you done any seasonal decorating for fall this year?
 

the myth of a white Christmas

Why do people wish for this?  Is it just because of the song and the movie?  Whenever I think of someone wishing for snow on Christmas, I think of my sister.  My sister who has never seen snow on Christmas and probably never will.

Yes, the outlook is bleak.

Let's think about this now.  The actual start date of WINTER is the solstice, which is on December 21 this year.  That means Christmas is only FOUR days into wintertime.  Yet I start seeing those darn snowflake ornaments and Frosty figurines the week after Halloween.  In Florida.  And also in my home state of Georgia.  But everyone in the Deep South knows that "winter" is just a clever disguise for "experiencing all four seasons in the span of one week."  I'm not kidding.  It only snows about every other year (to the point of actually sticking on the ground), and it's usually not until late January or February.  Y'know, the MIDDLE of winter.  Not the beginning.

Now let's talk about Australia.  Or Brazil.  It's SUMMER there during Christmas.  I knew a gal in college who spent a large chunk of her childhood in Australia, and she told me that they still sung carols about snow and winter in December.  I find that sad.  Maybe you Aussies need to put down the lagers and vegemite and come up with your own carols?  I'm sure you can work a jolly kangaroo into it while you're at it.

As for me, I've never wished for a white Christmas.  I guess I sorta got one last year, the first year I spent Christmas away from Georgia.  I was in Michigan/Indiana with B, and yes, there was snow on the ground.  I might've taken a picture, but it just looked like slush to me.  All I remember is that I was cold.  (I'm always cold.)  It snowed a few days later while we were still there, and I built a snowman.  By myself.  After I finished my pitiful snow creation, I ran back inside and stole my husband's wool socks.

If I had to wish for a certain weather on Christmas, I'd wish for a repeat of what we enjoyed on Thanksgiving Day in Lawrenceville, Georgia.  It was sunny, about 75 all day, and the most perfect day for a stroll/picnic/game of disc golf in the park.  I would also wish for the nights to only get down to about 60 so I could wear my adorably cute teal trench coat to Midnight Mass.  (I have an issue with my winter coats: the 'formal' one doesn't keep me warm and it's too big, and the one that keeps me warm isn't very formal.  But my trench coat is just plain gorgeous, and I get compliments on it every time I leave the house.)

I don't know, maybe I'm a freak--a freak who is determined to never shovel an inch of snow in her entire life.  I bet there are a lot of homeless people out there who share my disdain for snow and cold weather, so let's not forget them this year.

All that being said, I told B that I would "seriously crap my pants" if we see any semblance of a white Christmas in Georgia this year.  And he'll have to clean it up. 

Do you dream of a white Christmas?