snow and Mardi Gras

Woke up to this today (of course it has already melted in the sunshine...and then we had hail...and that has melted now that it's sunny again):

I feel sorry for meteorologists. Such a tough job. They predict one thing and then another happens. When we went to bed last night, the weather forecast was 15% chance of snow until 11 pm, then no snow. I looked out the window at bedtime. No snow. I looked out around 2-3 am. No snow, so I thought we weren't getting any. Then Glen informs me this morning that it was snowing. Ha ha. I'm glad I'm not a meteorologist.

Tuesday was Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday (what Mardi Gras translates to), Shrove Tuesday (the religious term for the day before Lent starts). I had signed up to feed the sister missionaries last month, not realizing at the time it would be Mardi Gras. Once I realized it, I decided to really get into it. I went all out this year in cooking. I usually just make red beans and rice and maybe a king cake (the recipe made 2...Kaellen got the plastic baby out of the first cake and Glen got the other... though I don't think they are planning on bringing the king cakes to our next Mardi Gras party...which would be next year, at this point. This year I also made gumbo and homemade French bread, too! The gumbo recipe was quite involved, but I thought it turned out super delicious.

Besides the Sister Missionaries, I invited another friend/neighbor, Gwen, to eat with us (she was behind the camera, so isn't in the photo). One of the sister missionaries hadn't even heard of Mardi Gras before, so we got to fill her in on the basics. I then realized I was missing some of the basic info myself...like how it all got started in the first place. Was it really just to party before Lent began?

Anyway, since this year also marks 40 years since I graduated from Grace King High School in Metairie, Louisiana, I'm feeling a bit nostalgic about Mardi Gras and Grace King High. I did some hunting on YouTube looking for something to post here. I found it. A short clip from a 2014 Mardi Gras parade that includes 2 floats and Grace King's marching band (though only the drum line is playing at the time). It's short enough and gives a bit of flavor to the season.

When Denise and I attended Grace King, an all-girls public school back then, we were the Grace King Colleens. I found out that, since they are now co-ed--and have been since a year or two after I graduated, they are called the Grace King Fighting Irish and the mascot is now Lucky the Leprechaun instead of a colleen (did you know that, Denise?). Anyway, here's the clip from YouTube:

Now...next on the radar is March Madness! Can't wait!