chomps

This Holiday Season is more emotional to me than any other one I have had before. Maybe its because of the trauma that is healing after the storm and that everyone is really thankful that we are alive and living back home.

Lara bought me a really thought out gift of bowfishing for Christmas because she knows that I have been stressed and needed to get out on the water to feel any sort of relief. I enjoyed bowfishing more than I ever would have thought. Night time with friends on an airboat in Buras (God help Plaquemines Parish) drinking and laughing while shooting our limit of redfish can only be truly experienced by doing it.

Lara and I did the traditional Christmas Eve at my sibling’s house and we were not prepared for what gift we were givin. My sibling is a police person for the St. Tammany Sheriffs Office and worked for 5 weeks straight living in the EOC in covington during Katrina and the aftermath. It was trying for her because not only was it hard work but she was without her children or S.O. , Shannon, for those 5 weeks. Shannon evacuated with the kids to Georgia and got them enrolled in school and took care of them. My Sibling was so grateful as were the kids they performed a tribute to her for Christmas which included 9 songs sang through a karoeke machine. Some were solos, some were duets and some were performed by the whole Simpson Posse. Everyone cried and hugged and expressed their appreciation for each other. It is truly what the holidays are about. I know it sounds a little like a Hallmark card but it really was an amazing experience.

A little added treat to this Christmas Eve was Joseph, the youngest of the kids, did a solo from The Sound of Music. He loves to sing more than anything and he takes so sincerely for being 6 years old.

I am so happy to be in NOLA for the holidays that I cant even try to put it into words. Just to be around what I call my home is the best gift I could have ever recieved.