After singing a ton on Christmas Eve, and attending church on Christmas day, we went to New Orleans to see our Jesuit friends there. Though Texas is next to Louisiana on the map, it's about an 8 hour drive from Dallas to New Orleans. That's why we haven't gone sooner.
We ate a ton of good food while there, as you can imagine. I heard an accent which I thought sounded like it was from Brooklyn, but was told that it was a "Yat" accent which is native to NOLA and slowly dying out among the younger people. Very strange. After that I realized I don't understand much about New Orleans at all. It seems like its own thing - its own country. And that's okay. America needs to hold onto the dregs of culture that mainstream conglomeration tries to squeeze from it.
Hunter made a new friend. My friend who I met in Berkley, Fr. David. He and Hunter hit it off :) David is truly one of the smartest people I know, and one of the few who will discuss St. Thomas Aquinas and then practice the sword dance from Brigadoon with me in the span of 10 min.
We saw some beautiful churches which always makes me think "why can't we have nice things in Dallas?"
One of the best things was how this Catholic city still has all their Christmas decorations up! They understand that Christmas is still going (and going...and going...) I loved it! We drove through a light display in the park and went and saw this elaborate train setup at the mall.
It was depressing to come home and see that most people here had taken down their Christmas decorations even before New Year's Day. Come on, people! We will be that annoying Catholic family on your street with our house decked out until February.
