A Great Valentine's Night!

This year for Valentine's Day, we opted to stay in, cook and just hang out at our house. It was a chilly evening, so we even had the rare opportunitity to give the fireplace some action.

While Tom was cooking what I knew would be the best meal served in town on this night, a variation of his famous bbq shrimp recipe, I decided to have fun and get creative making the salad and setting the table.

It was a perfect Valentine's Day! I love you, Tom! You have a gift for making the ordinary special and showing how deeply you love. You are an inspiration and I don't tell you nearly often enough how much I appreciate you and what you bring to my life.

My Fleur De Lis Was In The Cards

Tom and I have loved New Orleans and New Orleans has loved us back.

We've been so many times over the years that I've lost count. It's where we took one of our first weekend get-a-ways. It's one of the first places we danced together. It's where we got engaged (12/31/05, just a few months after Hurricane Katrina). And, it's where we love to go over and over again! In fact, we're already planning to go again for the second weekend of Jazz Fest.

For some time, Tom has wanted to give me one of Mignon Faget's necklaces. After Hurricane Katrina, Tom read about her artwork and all that she was doing to help rebuild New Orleans.

So, during this latest trip, Tom took me to Faget's Magazine Street boutique and picked out this pendant ... a Fleur de Lis, the ancient French heraldic icon signifying purity, light and life. It is the symbol for New Orleans. We've designated my fleur de lis as our symbol for our personal trinity ... live on, love on and laugh on!

Each time we visit New Orleans, we find time to go down to Jackson Square. We love to walk to the back of Cafe DuMonde where most tourists don't know that you can order a cafe au lait and beignets to-go without waiting in the long lines. We like to grab ours and head back out to the street to enjoy the free entertainment. We love the street performers and folk artists, but are particularly fond of the fortune tellers. Tom swears that there are more fortune tellers per square foot around Jackson Square than any other place one Earth!