Frederic Family Christmas Party

Last Saturday night was the Frederic Family Christmas Party. They sure know how to have a good time:)

Happy Birthday Aunt Connie!

Oooooooooooo!!!

Girl Cousins 

Guitarzan: A Frederic Tradition

and this also happened....

The Frederic Party involves a lot of singing, a lot of laughing, and it's anything but dull. I'm not even bitter that I come from a family of very talented singers and I have not an ounce of that talent. NOT BITTER AT ALL. Just kidding. I love hearing the Frederics rock!

Happy Christmas Y'all!

I've been a bad Blogger and Santa is watching...

I haven't updated my blog in a while and my fans (Cody) are pressuring me to do so. I have lots of pictures to share so....here we go!

Two weeks ago, we had a fabulous dinner at La Crepe Nanou with some of our favorite people. Cody and I met up with Anthony, Mary, Veronica, and Veronica's date, Anthony. We had such a great time. Wine, escargot (I get them all to myself! haha), crepes, coffee, dessert. It was yummy and the company was perfection.

Ladies

Pictures of people laughing are my favorite

The dessert crepe is on fire!

Last week, Cody and I went to Celebration in the Oaks in City Park. Or as my mom calls it, Christmas in the Oaks, and for some reason I think that is hilarious. This was somewhat of a tradition with my family and I was looking forward to experiencing it with Cody. It was very hard to hide my disappointment in the fact that there was no driving tour this year, but it was still beautiful and definitely puts you in the Christmas spirit. We started by grabbing some hot chocolate and buying a hat for Cody. Of course, the only hats they sold said "Who Dat" and had a fleur-di-lis on them, but it was really cold and not worth being picky. We then walked around the botanical gardens and I was quite proud of myself for voluntarily walking around in such cold weather. I guess it was good practice for DC. One of my favorite things they did at Celebration in the Oaks is having a recorded version of the Cajun Twas the Night Before Christmas, which they played on a speaker and it coincided with a scene around a shack, which lit up with certain parts of the story. It was great and I'm doing a bad job of explaining it. We ended the night with a ride on the historic carousel, which instantly makes me feel like a kid. It was a beautiful night.

Wednesday was my day off and Cody's last day in New Orleans before leaving for Spokane, WA to spend time with his family for Christamas (Hello Ponds!). We did laundry, ate pizza, went to the antique mall on Magazine Street, went to the Quarter and bought our first Christmas ornament, had beignets at Cafe du Monde, and had a drink at St. Joe's. Of course, we ended the night with some episodes of MythBusters, because that's how we roll.

My laundromat is very colorful

There has NEVER been coffee but at least my Starbucks is on the same block

My Starbucks

Antique Mall

Back at Cafe du Monde

Cody isn't here to tell me to not post this picture

Our "New Orleans" Christmas ornament 

Now, Cody is gone and my roommate is in NYC, so I'm having some mixed emotions right now. It makes me sad to come home to an empty house, but I am loving having some "me" time at the apartment. I've been watching a lot of 80s movies and doing some Christmas crafting.  Tonight is the Frederic Family Christmas Party and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone!

Happy Holidays!

xo

Guest Blog from Cody

Hi there!  Erin suggested I guest blog an entry for her, so let me tell you what's been going on with Erin and I.  Erin's apartment has had some electrical issues recently in which fuses have been blowing frequently.  These fuses are 60 Amp time delay fuses which we think are going when Erin and Tierney (her roommate) run their heaters all at once.  Wikipedia claims that a car headlight draws 5 Amps, a typical outlet allows a maximum of 15-20 Amps, and that an "immersion heater" (whatever that is) draws over 30 Amps.  So it seems plausible that 4 or more heaters at once could trip these fuses.

Erin has been buying Christmas gifts for those of you who have been good this year, and is looking forward to spending time with family.  We've also been watching a lot of Christmas movies and Mythbusters, which is one of my favorite shows.  Erin likes Mythbusters a lot as well!  Some of the myths covered so far: Is it better to walk or run in the rain?  Will a penny dropped from the Empire State Building really kill someone if it hits them?  And does a goldfish have a three second memory?    

I've been working on some problems for a professor, and created some images for a mathematical art show.  The images are posted below.

Merry Christmas!

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

Last night, Cody and I had a "suburban vacation," which is what we call it when we drive out to Metairie, eat at a chain restaurant, and go to Barnes and Noble. This time we ate at Le Madeleine's. I always feel like I'm eating at DisneyWorld when I go there. Specifically, the restaurant in the Magic Kingdom that I think is  based on Pinocchio and is supposed to feel German and rustic. La Madeleine's has the same low ceilings, brick and wood, and tray service.

At Barnes and Noble, I was mostly "window shopping" as I am currently low on funds and need to get some Christmas shopping done. First off, I'm a huge fan of children books and I love spending time in the children's book section, looking at the new picture books and flipping through classics and rediscovering my favorite books from my childhood. Then, I was on a mission. There was a new children's book that I wanted to buy (for my own collection and to hopefully share one day with my future kids). I decided to start a children's book collection and I knew which one I wanted to start with: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. If you are not familiar with Marcel, PLEASE watch these videos. Marcel was made by Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp. Jenny had a brief stint on SNL and she's a wonderful and charming comedian. These videos are magic. I show them to people to cheer them up because no matter how you're feeling, Marcel will always make you smile.

Well, I carried the book around Barnes and Noble for a while. Before we were about to leave, I put the book back. I told Cody that it didn't really make sense for me to buy this now. I bought a Christmas gift and a Christmas card and we left. Then....

I woke up this morning to find THIS on my bookshelf:

Cody is the best. And I am such a lucky girl.

A REAL Tree

At first I was hesitant about a real tree. I had been fine without one for the past 6 years. And for the past two, I'd been putting up this very tiny fake one to go in my very tiny apartment. First of all, my tiny tree is free. The needles don't fall off. It doesn't die. But when my roommate was so excited about going to get a real tree for our much-larger-than-my-last-place apartment, I knew I couldn't disappoint her. I set a price limit and we were off to find a tree. As soon as we got to the tree lot, I remembered something that real trees have that my little fake tree never will....that smell. The smell of all of those trees immediately brought me back to Christmases from my childhood. I had changed my mind about getting a real tree. (I think the viewing of "Miracle on 34th Street" at the Prytania before tree shopping had made me a little less of a grinch.) So we brought the tree home, watched Home Alone, and decorated! Is there anything more cozy than a home decorated for Christmas?