A Cajun Christmas?

~Friday, December 25, 2020~

Day 194

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone‼️ from Creole country. Never in a million years would I have imagined spending Christmas in a 200 square foot trailer in the middle of Louisiana. But here we are, and it’s a beautiful day, though chilly. And I never would have imagined that we’d be starting our Christmas with emptying a gray tank. Aren’t we supposed to be delivering beignets to all of our neighbors instead? After a few hours of challenges in getting to the dump station, we could finally get on with the Holiday festivities.

We had a late breakfast of my Eggs Shirley which turned out delicious.

I wasn’t so sure, since I was going by memory in making it (I really miss that recipe box of mine). What a nice relaxing day as we enjoyed our campsite with Sadie (she loves the forest with all of those smells), and talking with relatives on and off through the day. Jeff decided to make a nice, cozy fire for us to open our gifts by, which we didn’t start until after 4:00. It was just that kind of lazy, easy going day.

While we were opening gifts, our neighbor Bronie, a local, stopped by to tell us one more destination we just had to see while we’re in this neck of the woods. Jeff had met him earlier, on a walk with Sadie. A really nice guy with that real strong southern drawl. And boy did we get some great suggestions from him. He and his wife stay at this campground every year where their entire family gathers. But because of COVID, it is just Bronie and his wife, Peggy, along with all of their “toys”. He’s got a 40 foot 5th wheel toy hauler filled with a 3-wheel motorcycle and 2 electric scooters and a few other gadgets, all of which we’ll likely be seeing in the next few days.

I’m so excited. Jeff gave me a WeBoost to help with our internet connection while traveling. This will come in handy, especially when we’re in real remote areas, mostly boondocking or dry camping. And I definitely can use this with all of the website stuff that I’m doing. Jeff’s gift from me was a backpacking hammock with stand. He already has a hammock (the tree to tree kind), but doesn’t always have that option. This he’ll be able to take and put up anywhere he so desires to relax and take a snooze. It’s even lightweight enough for backpacking. I had to give him a hand drawn image since I didn’t have access to a printer and they were out of stock on it at the time. But it’s all good since this way, he can choose for himself, what color he’d prefer.

Before you knew it, it was time to launch into our Christmas dinner mode. Jeff seared and cooked a spinach, goat cheese and bell pepper stuffed beef-round, low and slow (this time only for himself). Since I made an exception in eating those delicious tamales on Christmas Eve, not keeping to my pescatarian ways, I decided to make a seared salmon with balsamic glaze for myself, along with the shared sides of red beans and rice and garlic sauteed broccoli. All delicious!! To cap off our evening, we watched another Holiday classic “Christmas Vacation”, while doing dish duty. A fun, but different Holiday in the South.