Year 2, Day 365: The Best Show on Earth!

Wow, yes, it's Day 365! It just dawned on me it's my last post of the year!  I'm thinking of changing it up next year so the blog isn't so cumbersome, (think: less pictures), but I wasn't going to start that until after vacation.  Happy New Year! We've spent the day down near by Mississippi, although it was as cold and windy as the harbour in Charlottetown in June.  Brrrr!!!  But we got to see trains, tugboats, and a Carnival cruise ship like the one we want on 3 years ago! Oh how I miss the sight of cruise ships in a harbour! Abishai would have loved it, too.  But we also had a great view of the New Orleans skyline.  It was foggy and overcast, but it's still a skyline, so I think it's neat.

Then we ate a quick lunch and were off to another movie.  Well, I went with different family members than I did for Star Wars, except for Gary.  We dragged him to "The Greatest Showman."  I say dragged him because, whoops, halfway through the movie I forgot that he doesn't like musicals! Sorry!  Aaron and Shauna didn't know it was a musical either. Oh well, at least I knew they wouldn't mind it with all the girls in their family liking to dance.  I don't care what the critics will rank it, because I LOVED it!  I didn't know Hugh Jackman had such talent!  Thank you, Instagram, for making me aware of what Mr. Jackman was up to so I would be excited for this movie!  Most know him as Logan aka Wolverine from the X-Men movies.  Well, this movie will help me remember that he's more than just Logan.  In fact, he's been married to his wife for over 20 years.  And he's done musical theater for a very long time as well.  Based on his Instagram feed, he thoroughly enjoyed making this movie and putting his hard earned talents to the test.  In fact, for publicity, the movie decided to perform a song LIVE on TV as an ADVERTISEMENT.  Yes, a LIVE AD! In a paid TV spot during a highly anticipated musical theater/remake of "A Christmas Story."  It's a brand new concept and they pulled it off beautifully!  I'm very impressed obviously.

Now some of us are typing, others are admiring new gifts, a baby is napping, and supper prep is starting.  We are grilling out (in the 50 degree drizzly weather) because it's New Orleans and we can.  Well, we deep fried a turkey in the middle of a snowstorm 5 years ago in negative degree windchill, so grilling should be a piece of cake.  And then the barrage of literally burning money, aka fireworks, will grow more intense as the evening wears on.  They've been setting them off, even during the day time, for days now.  They haven't kept us awake, thank goodness, but we are expecting it to be a rough one tonight.  The boys' room is pretty protected and if we keep Abishai awake longer than normal, he'll hopefully fall asleep easily.  We are going to try to leave at a decent time in the morning to head home, but we'll see how we all sleep.  And I don't know if we'll do it all at once or stop overnight.  Again, it depends on how tired the drivers are.  Then it's back to gymnastics and Bible Bowl on Wednesday.  No rest for the weary.  We will most likely start back to serious schoolwork the week after that.

Just hanging out on their devices.

Goofing off in the back of the van waiting on the rest of us.

Sunday morning, Everly wanted to show us a special spot where we could see the New Orleans skyline.  You had to cross over this very high bridge (think: lots of stairs) that went over the train tracks.  It was pretty cold and misty, but we got to see what we wanted to see!  I'm not sure if this is the Mississippi or Lake Ponchatrain (sp?) but you could see a Carnival cruise ship to the left of the city skyline.  I know that the cruise line does go on the river, so either this is either an inlet or the lake (which could be also an inlet).  Sorry, I just don't know the geography down here.

The whole view from the top of the bridge (bridge pictured below).

Ready to see "The Greatest Showman!"  And Keturah and I are STILL singing the songs 5 days later!

Yeah! We love movies!

I don't think this boy has moved from this spot very much.  He was sick a couple of the days, but he also just plugs in and watches his device all day.  Ok, not all day, but most of the day.  He didn't bring any books to read.  He eats, he plays card games, he sleeps, and he's on his device.  The life of a teenager when they aren't dragged around to go do stuff.

Just a unicorn and a teen.

Playing with filters on Snapchat or Instagram.  Aunt Shauna showed Keturah how to bob her head in and out.  Silly girls!

A pretty normal sight, too.  Plus, Aaron and Shauna buy real Christmas trees, but from Lowe's!

Playing holiday Scrabble with the extra special cards.  Keturah was playing on Shauna's phone and sending me the results.

Yup, Happy New Year!

Common theme, eh?  We weren't on them all day, promise!

Little brother with medium/middle brother and his new gold colored controller.

Ok, here's the big deal fireworks we've been talking about all week!  Some have shot off some during the day leading up the New Year, but the majority wait until about 11 pm on New Year's Eve.  If you took in a 360 degree view by standing in front of Aaron and Shauna's front yard, you could see about 10 different homes/streets setting them off!  As Gary says, they are literally burning money.  But, we can at least enjoy the view!  Incredible what money can buy!

Back at the pier, we showed Abishai just how big the train cars can be! The brown baricade is there as a flood wall.  It can come down if need be so workers can get to the train.  I'm sure a ton of upgrades have gone into the walls and levies around New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina.

Yes, the stairs!  My knees started aching!  It's a good thing Grandma stayed home with Justin, who was the one sick that day.

There it is!  This time to the right of the big bridge, is the Carnival cruise ship! We sailed out of that harbor 3 years ago!

We walked along this incredible bike/running/walking boardwalk for a bit.  I don't know how far it stretches because we didn't walk too far.

No, this isn't a broken down something.  It's a work of art, literally!  Shauna said this is the chic part of town and there are people that are into kitchy (sp?) kind of stuff like organic/vegan food, artsy, live off the grid, unique, odd?, etc.  It's hard to explain, but I think you know what I mean.  I like some of that, too, and some parts are becoming more mainstream.  A lot of times these people either have money to live like that by choice or they live in a minimalistic way because they don't earn a lot from their music or art or whatever.   It's also where the LGBT community congregates.  Think: the hippies of the '70's.  Yes, that's the word, hippies!

Always walking together.

It's cold.  Can we go back now?  No, I need your picture or it didn't happen!

This is an interesting art installation.

It's this empty building thing with a large conch shell on a pole up above and there's a stereo playing bird chirps and garden/forest noises.  Weird.

This is the outside of it.

There's a chain link fence between the boardwalk and the trains, but at least we could see them better on this side.

And that's the bridge!  Up and over the train!

Running on the pier.

I don't think the Mississippi has tides, but this might be for times in the spring when it floods.  You could hear some water sounds and wind going through there.

Missing Justin, but there you go.  Us in front of the New Orleans skyline.  Been there, done that.

Parts of an old pier?  We also saw tugboats and barges in this body of water, whatever it is.

That's a better view of the enormity of this bridge.

There is a gate at the bottom and the top that they can close.  I bet it's for when there's huge storms, like hurricanes, or maybe when there's a lot of train movement.  When we crossed over other bridges by car this week, we saw a ton of shipyards.  New Orleans is definitely a port city!

Old warehouses near the trains.  Probably offices or chic apartments now.

There's the train!

Hm,...there must be a lot of thefts from pop machines if you have to lock it behind a gate specifically designed to let you put your money in and get your pop from the bottom.

Working, working, always working.

We did pass by one of those hipster coffee shops that actually had gluten free doughnuts!  Shauna had done her homework and was able to spot it when we drove by.  This is an apple maple flavored baked doughnut.  The lady that makes them sells them at several coffee shops and they are quite popular.

With 12 people, there's always food prep or clean up going on.  We were preparing a big feast for New Year's Eve dinner and snacks to keep us going through the evening.

Cute cover on the sparkling grape juice.  It's not why we bought the juice though.

Shauna diligently finished up the train I completely forgot about.  And she took the time to do it right.  And that is why she is the number 1 artist in the family.

Aaron was fascinated with some treats Leah brought that had been given to her.  They are sometimes called "million dollar" somethings.  So he looked it up and made a batch!  It's just Spanish peanuts, mixed into melted chocolate and butterscotch chips, and then set on wax paper to cool.  Easy, peasy and oh so addictive!  I made myself sick on them on the drive back to Indy.  Oops!

I'm actually super happy that some of the kids know how to play card games!  That way, wherever they are, as long as they have a deck of cards, they can do something to pass the time.  My grandmother played a lot of solitaire (and built many 1,000 piece puzzles) when she lived alone.  My aunt visited often, and we visited once a week, but other than that, she was alone.  In fact, they all learned a new card game from Aaron and Shauna's friends and it was popular all week.  I took one look at the rules and said, "No, thanks." Too many rules and no one will probably play it with me when I get home. 

Yum.

I had Shauna leave a couple of things undone so Abishai could help finish the train.

Ta da!  So professional!  Wow!

And the other side!  Plus she sprinkled on powered sugar to look like snow!

Shauna said she's had this Happy New Year headbands probably since we were here last.  They just sit in the drawer ready for the new year!

I love my camera angle on this one.

More supper prep.  We had shish ka bobs on the grill, chicken and steak.

I almost thought this was a stuffed unicorn!  But nope, it's just Nora playing with Abishai.

Someone is getting sleepy.  She felt left out because the girls got new onesie jammies, so they let her borrow these.

Taking a peak at the fireworks yet to come.  I think it was about 30 degrees out there and the temps were falling!

It's always grilling weather (sort of) in New Orleans.  No one puts away their grill.

Instead of intermingling meat and veggies, we separated them in case the meat needed more time to cook.

Staying warm.

Time for a snowball fight!  Nora and Everly have the same bucket and balls we do because Grandma and Grandpa gave us each a set last year.

My cleaning buddy.  After supper, Benaiah and I went back tot the Mustard Seed House to clean it.  He had used a separate bathroom, so we made him clean it.  And when I realized how much work it was going to be to mop the whole floor, I asked for his help and he did without complaining.  I asked him what things he has cleaned at the school and he said most items like toilets, floors, tables, etc.  Ok, then, I'll put you to work more often!  I wanted to thoroughly wash the main floor and our bathroom because I'm not sure if the last group did it or not.  It was pretty dirty and our socks and feet were filthy.  I made sure to dust the TV stand and get all the nooks and crannies in the bathroom, as well as the doorknobs and lightswitches.  We probably didn't need to do all that, but, I felt better knowing it was done.  And we started to gather up laundry to do, which Shauna finished for me so we didn't have to wait on it before leaving in the morning.  Some of it was her sheets anyways, and I didn't remember which was which so now she could sort it herself.

Party food!  Grandma had bought the festive picks! And we had to remove it to the part of the counter Abishai couldn't reach because he was hogging it all!

More card games!

Someone didn't make it to midnight.  I tried waking her up about 11:55, but it was a no go.  She fell asleep about 10:30.

This guy, however, this toddler, made it just fine to midnight!  He's a party animal!  He kept himself just busy enough to stay awake!  I think he didn't feel well from sleep deprivation the next day, but still, he made it!

Mrs. and Mr. Johnson ready to brave the cold and head outside!

But first, we took communion because they don't do it weekly at the Gathering worship service.

It was probably 20 degrees outside, so we all froze to death!  But because of the fireworks coming from all directions, we could look through any of the windows and see some!  These are from Nora's window in the back.  The others were from the opposite direction in the front.

The End! Happy New Year!