It Is Right To Give Thanks & Praise!

Every other Thanksgiving, the Train packs up and heads to Southern Louisiana for a fun and food-filled week on the bayou. In past years, we've rented houseboats that have been tied to cypress 'knees' about a mile or so into the thick marshy swamplands, where we rough it for a few days. You may recall this scene:

I do realize that is some pretty fancy living for the holidays, but this year we decided to make it a even more upscale and rented actual cabins on Lake Ponchartrain. For those who are unaware, Lake Ponchatrain is the second largest saltwater lake in the US and the bridge connecting the north shore town of Mandeville to New Orleans is 24 miles long!!! Talk about anxiety.

Recapping the history of Thanksgiving on the Bayou: Daddy and his high school & college fraternity brothers still get together a few times a year and have formed their group called The Martini Tour. All these men are from small towns on the north shore and have a copious amount of stories about their childhood. They probably know way too much about each other, which eventually comes out late night after a lot of drinking. It's spectacular to watch the wives' faces. Truly.

Meet the Martini Tour Board of Directors!

(L to R:)

• Chef Robert E Lee {Stewart} -- I'm 100% serious with his name! ...And he's 100% serious about food!
• Billy Boy Bratton (my Godfather who was once lost but has now been found)
• Cottontop Cochran (we owe him a bunch of Thanks this holiday for keeping the lake clean and safe for us to use)
• The infamous Stanga Train Conductor/Engineer
• Unka Donamann (He is significantly responsible for the best MT event planning)
• Newf (always love the fella that brings the vino!!!)
• and last but not least... Sir Dobber-Doo (thanks to him...or well, thanks to some of his people... we were blessed enough to get such gems on the lakefront.)

Returning to their homeland was probably very special to them, and the cabins caused far less bitching from the woman than did the houseboats. Not too shabby, eh?

All seven families sporadically arrived throughout the afternoon on Wednesday and that night we gathered for our first ridiculously delish meal. Dobs made a ginormous pot of gumbo (to.die.for) while Donamann fattened us up with a rendition of Muffaletta Pasta. Leave it to 'ole Lee to come in with finishing touch: Oysters Bienville. Oh holy shit. Bless that man! After stuffing our faces, we rolled on over to another cabin to spark up a frivolous game of Bouree and consume mass amounts of spirits. Hey, it's what we know. It's what we do.

Thanksgiving morning, we were left to do our own thing. Michael {Stanga} was up and at 'em early, ready to get his cook on.

Dobs was up and at 'em early, ready to get his work out on. It may appear that he might have been passed out on the dock, which is par for this group and wouldn't be a bad guestimate, but actually, he was doing a few crunches.

Unka Don was up and at 'em early, trying to do a little crabbing for some stellar fresh seafood. Check out this bad boy. Good work Unk.

Molly and I were up and at 'em early, doing... um.... well.... Let's just say you should be real real impressed!

Thank you Dooley Elementary Music Program!!!

After that sweet workout, it wasn't long before we were ready to E.A.T. and eat we did! Doesn't every Thanksgiving have an appetizer round? Because if you don't, you are so doing the T.Giv. wrong!

Um, crawfish pie, 'Best of the Bayou' Pie, tuna/cream cheese dip stuffed in jalapenos, boudin dip, shrimp remoulade??? Um, YES.PLEASE!!!

It took me about three point six two seconds after devouring that before I was in line chompin' at the bit for some real food. If anyone ever doubts the weight-gain potential of our group -- your questions can stop here!

Molly brought along D'Larry'ous and introduced him to his first Martini Tour Thanksgiving. It is an understatement to say he was impressed with the spread. He finished his plate, looked up with big excited eyes and a child-like smirk and went back for seconds.

After this meal, he was nothing but a big 'ole joy kettle!!!

Because we Stangas are nothing if not intelligent, we decided to wait until we puffed up like balloons to take a few photo ops. Always the best idea ever!
{Raise your hand if you're impressed with my undone zipper.}

{Raise your hand if you're impressed with my undone zipper AND my closed eyes.}

{Raise your hand if you think this is the cutest damn couple. Wait! Can you even see them? If you could, you'd know that daddy is holding a beverly while mom is holding desert. Odd!}

{Raise your hand if you think she is 'the one' for me.}

Not only did Pops get to rehash with his buddies during this trip, so did Mom. I finally got to meet some mighty nice ladies, some of which I have heard stories about for years. Since we were so close to their hometown, sweet Les invited all her old childhood friends over. Wow, what a group to introduce them to! Anyhoo, it was so neat to watch my mom laugh so hard and revisit her childhood -- I have never seen that side of her. It truly made my heart melt. *Tear*

There was way too much fun to be had on this trip. Too much that we decided we needed to catch up and laugh every.single.year rather than doubling up every other year -- so guess what's already on the books for next year: Martini Tour Thanksgiving 2010! {Danette & Chris, book your cabins now. You're coming with!}

Just when we thought we'd had the best time possible, we struck gold once more. Instead of making a trip up to Death Valley for the LSU game {Thank you Les Miles!} we detoured and made way over to New Orleans Fair Grounds for some pony races.

{Let me just make a sidenote with no other explanation: We didn't really realize before planning this that Grambling & Southern Universities were duking it out in the Superdome for the Soul Bowl that day. You've never seen so much chrome and fake Louis Vuitton jumpsuits in your life!!! Oh and don't forget about the weaves. I'm just sayin...}

Okay, back to the races: Dad mistakenly laid a $60 bet down on the very first race of the day. He was for sure ready to only bet $2 races the rest of the day when he lost $60 in the first minute and twelve seconds. But do you know what happened? The three horses he selected at random all either won, placed or showed. We hadn't even ordered our cocktails yet before he won $587. Holy shit! And with that good luck, we ended our trip and returned home.

Well, not without an LSU win first! Geaux.