Harvest Festival

Back from my grandmother's house. The food was, as ever, delicious and filling. I barely felt like moving after I'd had a helping of everything. Especially since Mom made her mashed potato recipe that has the sour cream and cream cheese in it to help fluff it out. Major, major stuffage.

Got deputized into preparing the stuffing - ripping up all the stale bread that goes into it and chopping the celery and onions. This year, the relatives did not insist on watching my every move like a hawk, so they didn't make me nervous while I was handling sharp knives.

Mom made her pecan and cranberry pie. Mmmmmm! Sweet, sweet, almost too sweet, except for the tart little cranberries that are such a delight to eat.

Helped my dad clean up afterwards - he washed the dishes while I dried them. And used high-volume to ask my mom where all the dishes went. The curse of working in a kitchen other than my own.

We didn't drive back home until after dark, and I spent most of the drive staring out the window at the lights. Over the lake, the lights around it would go glittering off across the water, leaving long streaks of light. It looked like each individual light was held up by a pole of light.

New Orleans East has streetlights again, but it's still darker at night than it used to be. But it's also way, way brighter than it was immediately after the storm.

There's a cat in my lap demanding pettings.