First Year Anniversary
This past year seemed to fly by. Every new year will bring a special memory for Greg and I and I'm very grateful to have it to welcome in each New Year ~ that memory being ~ Our Wedding.
On January 3rd, we celebrated Our First Year Anniversary. The anniversary gift for the first year is supposed to "paper" and in keeping with tradition, we exchanged lovely cards.
Going to the Roosevelt Hotel was a romantic way to start our celebration. It was still decorated for Christmas and my gosh, it felt like a Fairy Winter Wonderland! The pictures don't do it justice. All those lights and crystal and glass ornaments and white tree limbs seemed to go on forever! It made me smile; Greg said that I glowed. We were surprised with the cost of the meal ~ it wasn't as expensive as we thought it would be. In fact, it was very reasonable. Greg had the three egg omelet. The hashbrowns looked ehhh, interesting - picture hashbrowns with tomatoes and asparagus. I had the banana walnut pancakes - yum! We had a lot of people offering us congratulations, as Greg was quick to say, "It's our first year anniversary." One couple stopped at our table on their way out and said, "We overheard that it was your anniversary and we wanted to say Congratulations." They were all very sweet. Definitely a good way to start off the day :)
After breakfast we walked around the hotel. It re-opened about 5 months ago since Katrina and I thought they did a beautiful job with the renovations. I read that it was a 145 million dollar restoration and it's considered part of the Waldorf Astoria Collection. One of the stories associated with the hotel was that Seymour Weiss (from Bunkie, Louisiana) started at the hotel as a barbershop manager and worked his way up. He eventually took ownership of the hotel, leading it to the reputation that it has now.
From the Roosevelt, we went to tour a plantation home in Vacherie. Laura Creole Plantation is not the standard plantation home with the large white columns "Gone With The Wind" appearance. It looks more like a large cottage home in colorful hues of yellows, blues and reds. Creole, meaning the merging of cultures from French, Native Indian and African. The Plantation raised sugar cane and bananas (yellow, red, purple, blue, green). It was family owned and operated. When the President of the Plantation decided to retire, that person determined who would get the business. Of course, the President wanted someone who was business oriented and intelligent and it had to be kept in the family. Interestingly enough, the last four generations to run the plantation were women!
We know a lot of the heritage of the place, because one of the owners, Laura, kept a journal from the time that she was a little girl. It was Laura who ended up selling the Plantation business to another family. When Laura had her own family, her daughters were reading a book and asked their Mom if her life on the plantation was like what the book said.... the book - Gone With The Wind. Laura read 10 pages into it about mint juleps and hoop skirts and immediately tossed it to the ground, stating, "If you want to know what life was like, I'll give you something to read." It took her 5 years to accumulate her stories into a book, but it's real - yes, it has some of the romance and beauty, but it has the ugly, hard truths too. The tour guide shared both as well, keeping it very real.
One thing I thought was funny was how the middle doors of the house are called "Breeze Doors." This makes sense. The wind from the Mississippi River flowed between the trees and into the middle doors and this kept the entire house cool. People never entered the Breeze Doors. They used the right or left doors depending upon who they came to visit. The Breeze Doors were strictly for air and a chair would be put in front of the doors so no one would open or close the doors. Of course, this allowed critters to enter the house such as lizzards or cats and dogs. Thus, the Breeze Doors were nicknamed the Animal Doors. I had to laugh when our tour guide explained, "The French were horrified that Americans allowed their guests throught the front door, the Animal Door!"
All in all, a very informative tour and I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. I've been to a lot of plantation tours, but enjoyed this one the most. It wasn't ornate, but it was rich in culture.
Soon after we returned home, Cindy, a good friend and neighbor, stopped by to give us a potted plant of pansies. She said pansies represent "memories" and thought it was a good thing to celebrate our first year, along with a lovely card. During the day, our families called and left messages wishing us a Happy First Year Anniversary. Madelyn sang us Happy Anniversary, which was too cute! Greg's parents gave us a card and a gift certificate to Zea's restaurant (we're looking forward to going there). In fact, we thought about going to Zea's for supper, but instead Greg cooked steaks and potatoes (he's such a good cook!).
It was a wonderful way to celebrate our First Year Anniversary. Greg said at one point, "It was a little difficult to put together ideas for our anniversary, so soon after Christmas and New Years. Next year we'll plan things out better." I think it turned out lovely. In fact, it reminded us of our honeymoon. When we went to the Roosevelt, we were thrilled to see the decorations. I commented, "I wonder when they will take down the Christmas decorations." As we were driving away from the hotel, we saw a large van pull up to the hotel entrance with totes being taken out. Greg pointed and said, "Looks like they are taking down the Christmas decorations today! Just like on our honeymoon at the Biltmore Estates - we were able to see the Christmas decorations just in time!" A lot of wonderful memories, thinking about our wedding day and honeymoon.
Gregory Patrick O'Brien ~ I love you ~ with all that I am. I love our life together. "Life" ~ there will be ups and downs, but with you ~ it's worth it and it's beautiful. Thank you, Sweetheart, for being you and for loving me.
XOXO
On January 3rd, we celebrated Our First Year Anniversary. The anniversary gift for the first year is supposed to "paper" and in keeping with tradition, we exchanged lovely cards.
Going to the Roosevelt Hotel was a romantic way to start our celebration. It was still decorated for Christmas and my gosh, it felt like a Fairy Winter Wonderland! The pictures don't do it justice. All those lights and crystal and glass ornaments and white tree limbs seemed to go on forever! It made me smile; Greg said that I glowed. We were surprised with the cost of the meal ~ it wasn't as expensive as we thought it would be. In fact, it was very reasonable. Greg had the three egg omelet. The hashbrowns looked ehhh, interesting - picture hashbrowns with tomatoes and asparagus. I had the banana walnut pancakes - yum! We had a lot of people offering us congratulations, as Greg was quick to say, "It's our first year anniversary." One couple stopped at our table on their way out and said, "We overheard that it was your anniversary and we wanted to say Congratulations." They were all very sweet. Definitely a good way to start off the day :)
After breakfast we walked around the hotel. It re-opened about 5 months ago since Katrina and I thought they did a beautiful job with the renovations. I read that it was a 145 million dollar restoration and it's considered part of the Waldorf Astoria Collection. One of the stories associated with the hotel was that Seymour Weiss (from Bunkie, Louisiana) started at the hotel as a barbershop manager and worked his way up. He eventually took ownership of the hotel, leading it to the reputation that it has now.
From the Roosevelt, we went to tour a plantation home in Vacherie. Laura Creole Plantation is not the standard plantation home with the large white columns "Gone With The Wind" appearance. It looks more like a large cottage home in colorful hues of yellows, blues and reds. Creole, meaning the merging of cultures from French, Native Indian and African. The Plantation raised sugar cane and bananas (yellow, red, purple, blue, green). It was family owned and operated. When the President of the Plantation decided to retire, that person determined who would get the business. Of course, the President wanted someone who was business oriented and intelligent and it had to be kept in the family. Interestingly enough, the last four generations to run the plantation were women!
We know a lot of the heritage of the place, because one of the owners, Laura, kept a journal from the time that she was a little girl. It was Laura who ended up selling the Plantation business to another family. When Laura had her own family, her daughters were reading a book and asked their Mom if her life on the plantation was like what the book said.... the book - Gone With The Wind. Laura read 10 pages into it about mint juleps and hoop skirts and immediately tossed it to the ground, stating, "If you want to know what life was like, I'll give you something to read." It took her 5 years to accumulate her stories into a book, but it's real - yes, it has some of the romance and beauty, but it has the ugly, hard truths too. The tour guide shared both as well, keeping it very real.
One thing I thought was funny was how the middle doors of the house are called "Breeze Doors." This makes sense. The wind from the Mississippi River flowed between the trees and into the middle doors and this kept the entire house cool. People never entered the Breeze Doors. They used the right or left doors depending upon who they came to visit. The Breeze Doors were strictly for air and a chair would be put in front of the doors so no one would open or close the doors. Of course, this allowed critters to enter the house such as lizzards or cats and dogs. Thus, the Breeze Doors were nicknamed the Animal Doors. I had to laugh when our tour guide explained, "The French were horrified that Americans allowed their guests throught the front door, the Animal Door!"
All in all, a very informative tour and I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it yet. I've been to a lot of plantation tours, but enjoyed this one the most. It wasn't ornate, but it was rich in culture.
Soon after we returned home, Cindy, a good friend and neighbor, stopped by to give us a potted plant of pansies. She said pansies represent "memories" and thought it was a good thing to celebrate our first year, along with a lovely card. During the day, our families called and left messages wishing us a Happy First Year Anniversary. Madelyn sang us Happy Anniversary, which was too cute! Greg's parents gave us a card and a gift certificate to Zea's restaurant (we're looking forward to going there). In fact, we thought about going to Zea's for supper, but instead Greg cooked steaks and potatoes (he's such a good cook!).
It was a wonderful way to celebrate our First Year Anniversary. Greg said at one point, "It was a little difficult to put together ideas for our anniversary, so soon after Christmas and New Years. Next year we'll plan things out better." I think it turned out lovely. In fact, it reminded us of our honeymoon. When we went to the Roosevelt, we were thrilled to see the decorations. I commented, "I wonder when they will take down the Christmas decorations." As we were driving away from the hotel, we saw a large van pull up to the hotel entrance with totes being taken out. Greg pointed and said, "Looks like they are taking down the Christmas decorations today! Just like on our honeymoon at the Biltmore Estates - we were able to see the Christmas decorations just in time!" A lot of wonderful memories, thinking about our wedding day and honeymoon.
Gregory Patrick O'Brien ~ I love you ~ with all that I am. I love our life together. "Life" ~ there will be ups and downs, but with you ~ it's worth it and it's beautiful. Thank you, Sweetheart, for being you and for loving me.
XOXO
Comments
Today is my 29th Anniversary. We plan to go out to dinner but I doubt it will be anywhere near as festive as your day was.
Just a question. Amongst all the ladies whose photos show up in the visual about Laura : A Creole Plantation, The lady on the extreme right distinctly looks Indian to me, featureswise; How come ?
Have a wonderful time ahead !
:)
Did you figure out how to do the collage on Picnik? If not just go to Picnik and it will say to add you photos and I think it is almost right above it there is a place that says collage...click on it (your pictures will keep uploading) then you have a certain amount of collages you can pick and just drag your photos into it. Then say done and you will get a toolbar for effects, text and all kinds of other stuff. I played with it a long time one night and saved several collages and then went ahead and upgraded to premium. It is really easy if you just play in it a little bit. Hope this helps or you can e-mail me.♥