Turkey Round-Up

Hello my lovelies!  Long time no see.  At least it feels that way. We made it home from Colorado last night and I am exhausted.

Today shall be a Thanksgiving photo dump.  This is the easiest way to recap the weekend's festivities.

We packed up the car on Wednesday evening and hit the road, taking only the essentials...

We got in about 3am.  The Fella passed out as soon as we got in but as usual I couldn't unwind and stayed up to watch the last half of Gone With the Wind on AMC, which I do every year.

The next day we woke to the smell of an amazing feast being prepared and a few hours later we had this before us...

Prepared by this amazing woman, my MIL.

The herd got in on the action too....

 

The rest of the day and half of Friday were spent stuffing ourselves, watching football, shopping and going to the movies.  Did y'all see Catching Fire???  Wasn't it so good?  Friday night we spent the evening hanging out with the Fella's friends, drinking and playing Just Dance on the Wii with their kids.  It was a blast!

Saturday morning we got up early and headed to Golden, CO for the day.  My best friend is moving there so we wanted to check out the adorable town and the property where she and her man are building their home.  It was a great time.

Saturday night we met up in Denver with some more friends of mine from college and his from high school for dinner, drinks and karaoke...always a good time.

Sunday consisted of sleeping and watching football at my in-laws' house.  Monday we hit the road early and got home in the early evening, laid on the couch and hardly moved. 

It was a jam packed weekend and we loved every minute if it!!  We are so thankful for friends and family to share the holidays with.

What did you do for Thanksgiving weekend?

Stuffed and sleepy,

tbg

 

 

 

 

Haunted Tour: New Orleans

Ok so I know I explained my obsession with Halloween here.  But when I saw that Helene and Sarah are hosting a Halloween link-up, I had to revisit the subject.  So I turned on my spooky fall playlist in my headphones and got to writing.

The point of this link-up to discuss anything Halloween.  I mentioned in my previous post that I had my bachelorette party in New Orleans on Halloween a few years ago.  It was actually more like a bridesmaids get-away that also included my mother and aunt.

My wonderful bridesmaids flew in from all over for two nights and three days of spooky, drunken fun in NOLA.

NOLA is my favorite place to visit for many reason such as my father’s family is from there, the music, the food and the history.  The haunted history epically fascinates me so on Halloween evening we got dressed up in our best vampire duds and took a haunted history tour. 

 

It was easily one of the most fun things I have ever done.  Unfortunately because the tour stopped every so often at a bar where we were able to partake in drink deals, we didn’t make it all the way to end of the tour.  13 women drinking a lot make for a pretty rowdy tour group.  Long story short…we got kicked out of the tour. 

This was our tour guide and she did not especially love us by the end of the evening.

 

New Orleans is considered to be the most haunted city in America.  Some of the more famous ghost stories about New Orleans take place in the French Quarter where many of the buildings are said to be haunted.  Today I will play your tour guide to some the most haunted houses in the French Quarter.

Starting with the story of the Haunting of the Octoroon Mistress, 734 Royal Street.

The history of the Ocotoroons is fascinating and heartbreaking to begin with, but the story of the Octoroon Mistress really resonates with tourists due to its' "romantic" origins. Here is a little background from Wikipedia...

“The term Octoroon is used for people in New Orleans in the 1800s that were 1/8 black, 7/8 white. These octoroons were known as freed blacks. They received the best education and were often very wealthy. Masked balls were used as a way for rich Creoles to obtain an octoroon mistress. Because of their different social statuses, octoroons and Creole men were not allowed to marry. This became an issue because these women often fell deeply in love.  The house at 734 Royal Street is haunted by the ghost of a beautiful octoroon named Julie. Well, Julie was head-over-heels in love with the man who “kept” her as a mistress, and she wanted nothing more than to get married. One cold December night during a ball, he decided to make a sort of dare. He told Julie that if she could prove her love for him by standing naked on the roof of the house all night until dawn, he would then marry her. He did not believe that she would accept this challenge. He went back downstairs to enjoy the ball. The next morning the he went to Julie's room to check on her. He was surprised to find her room empty. He immediately rushed upstairs to the roof. When he looked outside he saw his mistress huddled near the eave of the roof, frozen to death. The octoroon mistress is said to haunt the house she once resided in. Some people say on a cold and damp night you can see her figure pacing on the rooftop waiting for her lover to return."

Here is one of the pictures I took on the tour. 

 

Notice the glowing entity on the far right roof?  It appears in all of my pictures I took of this house on that night  Spooky eh?

Next stop....

The LaLaurie House, 1140 Royal Street. 

 

If you have been watching this season of American Horror Story then you will be somewhat familiar with perhaps the most gruesome and famous of French Quarter ghost stories.

Built in 1831, the three-story home belonged to Dr. Louis LaLaurie and his wife Delphine.  Delphine was a very popular New Orleans resident.  She would often throw fantastic balls at their beautiful home.  She was highly esteemed in society for her charitable work among the sick and the poor. She was said to be the most beautiful and influential French-Creole woman in New Orleans.  She and her daughters were among the most fashionable women in the city.

This was a time in American history were it was common to own slaves and Madame LaLaurie was not an exception.  She had dozens tending to her home and her family.  To make matters worse, she treated them cruelly.  Although slavery is cruel in and of itself, there was actually a law in New Orleans at the time that forbade slave holders to treat their slaves cruelly.  Of course it now seems absurd to think that there was a way to own slaves in a non-cruel fashion, however, Madame L treated hers in such a way that despite her good reputation, people began to complain to authorities about just how cruel she seemed to treat her slaves.  She was soon fined and her slaves were taken away to be sold at auction.  She then persuaded friends to buy her slaves and then sell them back to her.

In 1834, when a fire broke out in the Lalaurie residence, firemen smashed open a locked interior door and came upon a scene surpassing horror.  They basically stumbled upon a torture chamber.  I won’t go into all of the horrible details.  Just Google the story if you want to know the extent of her madness. She disappeared and nobody knows for sure what happened to her.  The house has had trouble retaining an owner since these horrible events.  Nobody has owned the house for more than 5 years.  There have been hundreds of accounts of terrifying noises and sightings at the house.  Nicolas Cage owned the home for a while but lost it when he went bankrupt.

 

You could not pay me to party up there.  I got a seriously eerie feeling standing outside this house.  I worked up the nerve to run over and touch its’ walls the night of the tour but since then refuse to walk past it on the same side of the street, even in the daylight.

I will leave you with a little more light-hearted story.  My favorite bar in New Orleans is Jean Laffite’s Blacksmith Shop, 934 Bourbon Street.

 

The building is one of the oldest in New Orleans and one of the only left with the traditional French architecture due to multiple fires in the Quarter.  The Pirate Jean Laffite is said to still haunt this bar. Here is a little background on the building, the haunting and the pirate himself.  This building is beyond cool.  Not only is it a great bar, it is the longest running bar in America.  If you go you MUST have a VooDoo Daiquiri for me.  They taste like kool-aid but lordy they pack a punch.

I personally have never felt any strange auras while in the Blacksmith Shop but a good friend of mine who writes over at The Peacock Pad recently took this picture.

How cool is that?

If you ever get the chance to go to NOLA on Halloween don’t hesitate.  It was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had.  The people hold nothing back as far as costumes...

Decor...

And atmosphere....

 

Have a great time but stay in a group...you never know what may be lurking around the corner.

 

The Baby Giraffe
 

Chicken Soup for the Soul Days

It’s Friday and it feels so good!! 

This weekend I am heading to a going away party for a friend of mine.  She and her family are moving to Australia.  Jeals?  Me too.

I have known this chickadee for about 23 years and I so amazed by the woman she has become.  She is an amazing mother, wife and business owner…..oh and can cut a rug like nobody’s business.

I had a little girl’s night gathering at my house a few weeks ago to get some good gab time in with her before she left.  It was one of those good for the soul nights I talked about here. 

 

We have all known each other for more than half of our lives so we decided it would be fun to bring all of our old photo albums over and go through them together  Holy cow did we have some gems.  We threw all of the "best worst" pics into a pile and then picked a winner at the end of the night.

This weekend all of her friends and family will be headed out to downtown Ft. Worth for some food and libations to say goodbye.  We are starting the night out at the Woodshed.  If you are in the area you need to check this place out.  It is so good!

It will be a bittersweet evening I am sure.  I will be so sad to see her leave but I am so excited for the journey she has in front of her.

Last weekend I got to see my lovely Karles who I had not seen since March.  Slash was able to make it out too.  I had them over for brunch on Sunday.  It was beautiful out so we got to lounge around on the patio eating quiche and chocolate babka.  Mimosas may have also been involved.  Another chicken soup for the soul day for sure. We discussed life, love, boys and business.  It was simply sensational.

 

This weekend I will also be getting some new furniture for my dining and bar area!  My mother is giving me some of her pieces that I have had my eye on for a while.  I am very excited.

This is what the area looks like now…..

 

That may all change very soon. Cannot wait to show you some pics of what is yet to come!

Have a wonderful weekend and get yourself some chicken soup for your soul!

Chicken noodle please,

tbg