50 years, Ninoo & Papa, or, the day after Thanksgiving

First, we visited Old Hardhide after breakfasting in Ponchatoula, LA. The strawberry capital of the world. Quote from ... C13 ... very good question indeed.

"Why would Ninoo & Papa live in Hammond when Ponchatoula is the strawberry capital, has a chocolate factory, beignets, and a town alligator?"

That question is clearly unanswerable.

Anyway, Ninoo & Papa also celebrated their 50th anniversary in September, just like MeMe and Pep did. However, we weren't in Louisiana for that, so we didn't get to celebrate with them. We went to dinner, and TCR had ordered a wedding cake at Big A's suggestion. C13 and Q11 presented their gifts.

C13 drew her vision of one of Ninoo & Papa's wedding photos. I love it. We put it in a frame that WE got for our wedding from Alice and Jason, our old landlords, but had never used. And we brought it on down.

Q11 made 50 cookies, 10 of 5 sizes, and she numbered them 1-50, starting with the smallest -- no, actually starting with an engagement ring, then the smallest hearts, up trough 50 to the biggest heart.

These:

Are inside here:

And TCR & Big A got them a wedding cake:

We took photos, and everybody has red-eye. Oh well!

Thanksgiving

This year, despite my reluctance to travel on Thankgiving, the the general Thanksgiving travel ban we put in place a few years ago, we traveled to New Orleans. Of course it was wonderful, and it was nice to see family and celebrate Thanksgiving with loved ones.

Our flight time OUT of DC changed from early evening, to middle evening, to finally late evening, so we didn't get to Hammond until after midnight ... so I guess very early on Thanksgiving day?

Thanksgiving day was cool, but warmed up throughout the day. We went across the lake to Mississippi and Bay St. Louis. Q11 was coughing, and had a fever, but somebody noticed and gave her Tylenol. Within 30 minutes she was fine and when we were offered a boatride (It has warmed up some by the end of the day) she was game. I got the four cousins to sit together and got about 20 horrible photos of them. This is my favorite.

Most people don't immediately tag C13 as a speed lover, or thrill chaser, but she sat at the front of the boat encouraging speed. This is before we were going fast, back in the bayou.

Out on the Bay St. Louis and out on the Gulf (we JUSSSSST snuck out far enough into the Gulf to say we were in the Gulf) we went faster, and C13 and Q11 loved it.

It was a lovely day!