Holidays, Take 3!

The gorgeous holiday lobby of the Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans

By this time, I was just starting to wrap up my holiday celebrations. I had one more out-of-town trip to take care of, though. I went to pick up my sweet sister, her adorable husband, and the cutest niece and nephew in the world from New Orleans. My sister lives in Oregon, and when she flies her family down for the holidays, it's much more economical to fly into New Orleans. So, myself and my older sister switch off (picking them up, and then taking them back), and we each get a fun weekend in New Orleans with them as a treat! 

A Christmas cocktail at 
Jingle and Jester hit the spot!

This year, I was on pick up duty. I went down to the city a little early and started my visit with my traditional holiday hotel lobby hop - the Windsor Court, the Ritz, and the Roosevelt. If I'm in New Orleans during the holiday season, these are the three gorgeously decorated lobbies I *always* see. As a bonus this year, there was a fun holiday pop-up bar at the Eliza Jane Hotel - Jingle and Jester. It was super cute, with tons of pretty holiday decor and a fun menu of Christmasy cocktails. 

By this time, my family had arrived. I gave them a chance to get to their hotel and settle down a bit, then picked them up to eat and have a little holiday fun. Because we figured small people would be tired from a long day of travel, we kept it low key. We headed to City Park for the driving tour of Celebration in the Oaks. There were tons of lights, and the kids loved this! It was a fun, easy way to feel Christmasy that didn't demand too much of them.   

After a good night's sleep, the kids had one thing on their mind - beignets. We high-tailed it to a cafe and got big plates of these doughy sweet treats. The kids scarfed them down like starving people. High on sugar and Christmas, we decided to let them get their ya-yas out by walking to the Royal Sonesta to take in the holiday lobby decorations. On both the walk and in the wide open lobby, they indulged their zoomies a bit and got some of the sugar worked out of their systems. 

Celebration in the Oaks was full of beautiful lights! 

Then, we all piled into the car and headed back to Jackson to celebrate with the fam. It was so, so good to have everyone together. For our holiday dinner, I made our traditional standing rib roast. I again tracked down those ridiculous whistle Christmas crackers and nearly laughed myself to death as we "performed" traditional carols with them. 

Merry Christmas from the girls!

And before everyone parted ways for the new year, we enjoyed our annual holiday dinner with the Goodmans, who are frankly the best neighbors we ever had. Each year, Mrs. Goodman still gets us all together, makes Christmas punch, fills our bellies with delicious food, and gives everyone a chance to put their arms around one another and catch up. Love, love, love. 

Until the 2024 holiday season, then!