I was born and raised In New Orleans. I met my husband on Bourbon Street, we had our rehearsal dinner at Muriel’s in Jackson Square, got married at The Audubon Tea room and both our children had there first birthday parties at the Audubon Zoo. It is a very special place to us and holds many amazing memories for us. We try to go back as often as possible, and Thanksgiving is usually one of those time.  It’s kind of our tradition.

This year we drove in and on the way we stopped at Prehistiric park in Henderson, Louisiana. My son loves dinosaurs so since it was his birthday the next day we stopped there for him. It is an outside trail with many dinosaur exhibits along the trail. It took us about 30 min to do. Some of the dinosaurs moved and made noises. The kids loved it.

Prehistoric Park

We stayed at the Ritz Carlton on Canal Street. I have always loved all the New Orleans hotels at Christmas. It’s something you just need to see. They never disappoint. The Ritz is elegant, classy, and beautiful. The lobby is truly amazing.
On Tuesday morning they had a reception in the courtyard for the revealing of the life size gingerbread house.

It has 770 pounds of gingerbread
300 pounds of royal icing
134 pounds of fondant
41 pounds of candy
40 pounds of dark chocolate

They had Papa Noel there to welcome everyone and take pictures. In the courtyard they hot chocolate and hot apple cider, pralines and gingerbread cookies. Once it was time for the unveiling, the holiday singer sang Christmas songs and Papa Noel cut the rope. It was definitely something we would do again. Thinking of making it a tradition for our family.

We always like to do some sightseeing while in, this time we did some blog shoots in Jackson Square and the French Quarter. The kids played at City Park and went to Celebration in the Oaks when we had dinner with friends one night. They loved it…of course.

I did some shopping at my favoriting store in New Orleans, Nola Shoes and Accessories. Not only is it a great trendy store for shoes, clothes and accessories, but they are great friends of ours. I got some great holiday wear, a kimono that I have probably over worn lately, and a couple pairs of booties.

We had dinner one night at the Ritz, at BISTRO M. It was very good. They were amazing with the kids. They brought them out stuffed animals, and put there order in right away. I ordered the seafood gumbo and herb saint roasted oysters. It was delicious!

One day we spent in the French quarter, we ended up eating at GUMBO YA YA. We had never eaten there before but I was so hungry and it was close to where we parked so we stopped in. One rule of thumb when we are in New Orleans is we usually try to eat Cajun food. It’s hard to find good Cajun here in north Texas so we try to get it as much as possible when we visit. This place was great. Our waitress was a riot…. she reminded me of the girl version of my husband. Everything thing had a tag line, a joke. She has us cracking up. All the food was great and spicy! My shrimp and grits were AMAZING! We split a seafood and okra gumbo, one thing you need to know about me is I do not like MEAT in my gumbo. No chicken, no andouille…none… my gumbo is for seafood only. The gumbo was definitely good.

We also had a holiday dinner with friends at REBIRTH. It is a very small restaurant in the wharehouse district. It was FABULOUS!!! Everything we had was awesome. Best meal I’ve had in New Orleans in a while. I had tried to make it a habit of seeing my friends from home while in town. During the summer we all celebrated our 40th’s at MERILS, which was a great dinner too. Who doesn’t like to hang and have good food and drinks with friends?
I wish Inwould have taken more pics of the food at REBIRTH because it was so good. The ginger gimlet cocktail was toooo good.

Rebirth

Usually one of our more casual meals ends up being ACME OYSTER HOUSE. It’s quick and close to my parents house. The charbroiled oyster are really what we go for. All this Cajun comfort food is why my pants never fit at the end of our trip, but it’s so worth it.

Some of our favs that we try to do are Copeland’s, Drago’s, Legacy, and more quick and easy, my favs are Caffe Caffe( chicken salad salad is awesome), buds broiler, and Pacino’s.

Acme Oyster House

As much as I love being in New Orleans for the actual holiday of Thanksgiving Day, I really go home for Black Friday. It’s my families tradition for as long as I can remember. We meet at the mall, have coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde. We take a big family pic with Santa and then do some shopping while the kids ride the Christmas train. It’s a super long and tiring day but fun.

On the way home we stopped in Natchitoches, Louisiana to see the City of Lights.
It’s over 300,000 Christmas lights and 100 lighted set pieces in downtown Natchitoches. The events all take place on the banks of the Cane River Lake. My son loved the fireworks, my daughter is terrified of them, lol. It’s a very fun thing to see. They have bounce houses, live music, and food booths. Such a fun but exhausting week.

New Orleans… till next time!

Natchitoches Christmas