Christmas in Louisiana

This is Dixie, Ayden and Vera. Ayden has the biggest heart of any little boy I've ever met. He loves kissing his cousin Vera and little sister and hanging out with his "aunt" Jessica. I am going to miss this kiddo.

This is Stacy, Dixie's sister.  She is pretty rad.  Her and her husband Josh were hostesses for Christmas and were way awesome about me crashing in on all the fun.  I love their family like my own.

Pawpaw Chuck!

These two little girlies make me want to have babies. They are soooo sweet.

Seeesters Stacy and Dixie

This is Stacy's husband Josh, with Vera and Pawpaw.  I love this picture.  Vera is so happy!

Just arrived to New Orleans for some site seeing and shopping.

Ian, funny kid.  He wouldn't take these sunglasses off for anything. I think it was like one of those "Big Daddy" things where he's protected from strangers with em on.  Ian cracked me up the whole trip.  He has the face and demeanor and middle name sake of his pawpaw Chuck, and it's super cute.

So you know how some cities have those silver statue looking dudes that pose very still and if you give him a dollar they'll do something crazy or unexpected?  Yeah.  This wasn't one of those kind of moments. He was really just a statue. This uber lame dude in the yellow was the "artist"....Scam artist....

Some of the fam walking around

This is a muffalata... it's something you gotta try when in New Orleans. Preee good.

French quarter

Bras.

Bourbon Street

This voodoo doll store was awesome. I loved the colors and creativity.  Dixie and I got each other little voodoo keychain dolls.  Hers had a mohawk and mine had a tutu.

Jamie Hayes is a known local artist who creates bright and fun pieces that I dig.

This keyboard smile is sort of his token signature.

Frolf! Markus on the left is Dixie's husband and Josh on the right is Stacy's.  These guys are a lot of fun to be around, as you can see.

gift wrapping

Vera enjoying the paper as much as the gifts :)

Ayden got this awesome 4D shark model that I loved just as much as he did.  Ayden and I both share an affinity for sharks, which I think is sort of unusual as most people prefer dolphins or whatever.  Anyway, we watched a lot of YouTube shark videos and stuff together.  T'was fun.

Cute as a button

Ian waiting for the fun to begin.  Hilarious.

Dixie and Afton.  Afton has the cutest voice.  She jibberjabbers constantly and I love it.  She is such a cool kid.  It's strange that she's only 7 months older than Vera.   She has like this old soul and you almost forget she's a baby.  I love that little girl!

Shark tooth.  You can hardly see it, and I'm not sure why he's frowing...buuut he was pretty excited about it.  This must be his earnest look. haha

Impromptu karaoke.  This is Ms Lorna singing with Vera and Josh

Stacy, Dixie, Charlie, Aunt Videt, and uncle David singing Christmas songs.

The family