More On Our Trip

It was dark when we arrived on Friday. The house that would be our home for the next two weeks is in Waveland, about ten miles East of Pearlington. You couldn't see much from the deck at night, but in the morning I was the first one up (most mornings, force of habit!) I got the coffee made and stepped out onto the deck. It was a beautiful neighborhood, but you could see that a lot of the homes around were new. Waveland and Bay St. Louis also had a lot of flood damage and are slowly coming back.

The towns are lined with canals, so it's no wonder the storm surge did a lot of damage. It rained on the 23rd and 24th and just one day of rain and high tide brought the water behind our house up noticably!

Brittany and I braved the storm on the 23rd to go out to the local fish market called Clawzilla's to get some fresh shrimp for the Christmas Eve Scampi! The folks there were so funny and friendly, I felt like I was in a movie! About peeling and cleaning them he said "I'm from Louisanna, and I don't mind leaving that vien in there...but my Mama, she's from Louisianna and she don't like that vien in there...it's up to you" To which Brittany said, "Oh no, we don't want the vien...my Grandma taught me how to clean them..." and volunteered to clean the shrimp...all five pounds.

We then found our way to the Mockingbird Cafe where they had told us we could still use the free WiFi from out in our car if it was after hours, so we sat in the car and Brittany posted her first blog in the storm! Again, very surreal!

On Christmas Eve Brittany, Regina, Jolynn (Regina's Mom) and I went to work for a few hours in the morning at Mr. Pat's scraping tiles, and on the way we cruised by the Mockingbird Cafe when they were open and got some good coffee, and some Serious Bread from the bakery in the back!

Fresh Local French Bread, Fresh Local Shrimp...it was quite a feast for Christmas Eve!

I even brought a recording of my Christmas Eve show on KPIG from last year, so we had that going while we cooked and ate! It was very festive!

Brittany and Jolynn peeling shrimp!

Dinner is served!

The stockings were hung on the staircase with care, in hopes that a chiminey soon would be there!

And Santa came! I heard a noise in the night, I peeked down the hall and I saw Santa filling the stockings. He looked a little like Brittany!

It was Christmas...just like the ones I used to know....only different! We got up and had a relaxing morning, coffee, real breakfast, not just a quick bowl of cereal and out the door...we opened our presents...it was a Christmas I will always cherish and always remember...even if I didn't get my Red Ryder BB gun!!!

Ralphie