Giftavus, the holiday for the rest of us!

For the last several years, we've done a gift exchange with our friends we've dubbed "Giftavus" and this year we hosted! We did a Cajun/Creole/New Orleans theme and thankfully, we had tons of red/green/white beads leftover from the Italian parade we saw while we were in New Orleans (side note, who knew italian men loved blonds so much? haha!) Here Rob shows his beads to Zoe and teaches her never to lift her shirt for beads.

Aaron was the only one who actually rallied and came in a costume, and for that, he won....our respect and admiration.

The Sparks rocked some festive headgear, though...so proud!

Max came in his Santa sweater, and he kept an eye out on all the partying.While Galileo was master of snuggling and napping.
Enough of that...gift time!
And then, the feast! We had all done Cajun cooking, I had made jalapeno corn bread and a new shrimp etouffee recipe that ended up being amazing, we had cheesy grits that made us want to slap somebody's mama, and some crab cakes, gumbo and okra salad that would have Emeril proud. Here's your chefs, slaving away.




Merry Giftavus.....oh yah, and Christmas! :)