April 27th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Happy Sunday Morning! First order of business, I want to wish my wonderful husband a very Happy 50^th Birthday! 

At 8:12 this morning, he officially turns fifty years old. We told him we were all going to come in and wake him up, at exactly that time, to wish him a happy birthday, but I think I’ll just let him sleep in. He is getting older now, and needs his rest. LOL.

My Niece Grace’s Confirmation went really well yesterday. It was a nice surprise NOT to have Communion at church. Please don’t get me wrong, Communion is a wonderful thing, but when the church is packed to the gills, as it is during Confirmations or First Holy Communions, it’s an hour long process. Without Communion, we were in and out, in just over an hour, and that’s with over fifty kids being Confirmed.

Me, Dani, Grace, Lys, Hubby

The weather actually held out for us too. We did get some rain in the early evening, but for the most part, we were able to spend the day outside. How good it feels, to be able to say that, after the winter we had!

The Baker is in the house… which means my kitchen will be a war zone right when I have a house full of guest coming. My husband loves beer, so Lys got it into that pretty little head of hers that Daddy has to have a chocolate stout cake for his birthday. For the most part, my husband doesn’t do sweets, and usually only takes a bite or two of his birthday cake, which means, the rest of us will be eating this cake. I, for one, am not a great fan of beer; and the thought of beer and chocolate together holds zero appeal. Why would anyone want to ruin chocolate that way?

Since I have the whole house to clean (around all the bins that were Lys’ dorm room), grocery shopping to do, and basically a Thanksgiving dinner to make, I should really get going. By the time everyone gets here at six, I’ll be ready to go to bed! Okay, let me run. I hope you have a terrific day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Use the following three in a story – Lamppost, Fedora, and Banana

A few years back, I surprised my husband with a long weekend in New Orleans. It was well after Marti Gras, so I thought things would be a little calmer, and I guess they were, marginally. The town was still hopping. During the day, we would walk through the outskirts of town or through the French Quarter, admiring the ironwork or learning about the history of the town.

However, when the sun set, Bourbon Street was our destination. We’d walk among the throngs of people, stop and watch street performers, listen to jazz at Musical Legends Park. We would grab a po’boy from Rick’s, and a ‘hurricane to go’ from the Calico Cat, and we would continue to meander, because the street was where everything was happening, and we didn’t want to miss a second of it.

Late Friday night, or maybe I should say Saturday morning, we were walking back to our hotel. The night had turned a little foggy and misty, so the streetlight were casting strange images, and playing tricks on our eyes. As we climbed, an image began to form under the lamp near the top of the hill. The closer we got, the more we began to realize, there was an actual figure under the lamppost, and not just a play of light on the mist. It was a man, a man wearing a fedora. We slowed our steps, and seriously debated over crossing to the other side of the street.

 

Then the shadowy figure belted out, “Day O. Daaaay Ohhh. Daylight comes and I wanna go home.” The last thing we had expected was Harry Belafonte’s Banana Boat song. We laughed. It was just another street performer. We tossed a few bucks into his jar, and continued to our hotel.

Your Next Challenge is:

You come home to find a “Dear John” letter … from your pet.

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.