Holiday Wrap-Up - Brady

I had one of the best, maybe the best, holiday seasons I can remember.

Christmas was spent in Indiana with my lovely family who waited on me hand and foot while I nursed my broken ankle. And we celebrated New Year's in New Orleans - a city I'm just a little obsessed with.

Here are my top 5 favorite Christmas pictures and top 5 favorite New Year's pictures.

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Christmas:

I know this photo isn't great, but I like how it captures the mood and activity at my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve - all the lights, the fire, the people clustered around the coffee table.

Kelly, me, and Lucinda Bassett. Lucy and I are kind of making the same face in this photo.

My grandparents' house from the outside. Don't you just want to be in there?

My grandparents' tree.

Christmas night in Fort Wayne - Kevin's parents' dog Sadie fast asleep in front of the fire.

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New Year's:

Breakfast on the balcony our first morning. (Our first night was spent drinking Abita on the balcony. It may have become something of a theme.)

The window that opened from the floor out to our favorite spot. The weather was nice enough that we left this up whenever we were home. This Midwesterner loves her some open air.

Gorgeous weather, gorgeous city.

My New Year's Eve. Best of my life. We ate dinner at Cafe Amelie - delicious and so pretty with all the doors wide open and Christmas lights all over the patio. Then we stopped for a drink on Bourbon Street and chatted with all the crazies (plus a very sweet drunk nurse in a sparkly pink dress who told me she was around if I needed anything). Then the four of us headed home to watch fireworks from the balcony, drink some champagne, and listen to the best version of Auld Lang Syne I've ever heard - courtesy of NOLA public radio.

Lesley and I fell asleep on the balcony and the boys headed back to the French Quarter. They didn't make it home until 4 a.m., and I'm pretty sure we didn't get them out of the house until 4 p.m. I love this last picture because it was such a happy moment for me. I'd had a great night. New Year's Day is one of my favorite holidays. We were out and about, despite my ankle. I had a lovely iced coffee with cream. And we got to people watch in yet another weirdo New Orleans neighborhood.

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I just want to say publicly how grateful I am to Kevin, Lesley, and Paul for helping me get around the city and encouraging me to get out and about despite the difficulty. They were superstars, and the trip would have been a total drag (or impossible, really) without them.