Mardi Gras / Valentine's Day Celebration

Good morning and happy Thursday!!!  Happy March 1st!!!

Today I am sharing with you our Mardi Gras / Valentine's Day celebration.  Mardi Gras is always on a Tuesday, hence "Fat Tuesday", and this year it fell on February 13th.  I love sharing the traditions I experienced as a child with my grandkids.  Living in the suburbs of Houston, we don't celebrate Mardi Gras as big as Lake Charles.  Heck, they have the day off to make sure they don't miss all of the parades and fun.  Galveston has a huge celebration for Mardi Gras that encompasses a couple of weeks.  I haven't gone as of yet.

#mardigras

#goodtimes

If you know me, you know there's no way I am going to pass up a chance to have a party so I decided to combine the two holidays together.  Mr. W will tell you there's always a party at Maw Maw's house.  :)

Welcome to our Mardi Gras!!!

I bought these large Mardi Gras beads from Sam's oh so many years ago.  Like a really long time ago.  Sometimes I use them on the LSU tree...sometimes I don't.  Just depends on the look I am going for.  I think they are perfect for Mardi Gras, don't you?  They have held up really well considering they are stored in our attic.

I draped a Mardi Gras necklace on the base of the lamp.

Isn't this Cajun gator just the cutest?  Brooke and Brad brought this back to me from New Orleans.  It is so unexpected and different.

Every year, while packing up Christmas, I have this crazy debate in my head.  Do I decorate for Mardi Gras or not?  This goes on for hours.  At this point, I am getting a little cranky and want to have everything put away.  But....I look at these beautiful ornaments and can't put them away when they are perfect to decorate for Mardi Gras.  So in the throes of my hot mess of a home, I start decorating for Mardi Gras.  I know...you probably think I am crazy and I probably am.  :)  I can't help myself.  The hubs is so good.  He doesn't say a word.  In the past, he'd try to discourage me which probably fueled me to do it even more.  I can be stubborn like that.  :)  He'll be the first to tell you how much he loves it once its done.

Aren't these crawfish ornaments the cutest?  I've had these for about 18 years and never use them so I added them to the LSU tree and now the Mardi Gras tree.  After all, Mardi Gras and crawfish go hand-in-hand.  Especially if you are from Louisiana.

#crawfisharesogood

#boiledcrawfish

We have three masks.  Two gold and this beautiful green and purple one.  It is much prettier in person.

The Mardi Gras bead drape was purchased at the same time I purchased the large Mardi Gras beads.  I was asking the hubs where a piece of artwork was and he thought I was talking about this poster.  It wasn't what I wanted, but I was so glad he mentioned it.  His sister gave us this poster almost 30 years ago for our first apartment and is a perfect accent for our Mardi Gras decor.

We celebrated the two holidays on a Sunday afternoon.  I hadn't given ANY thought as to how I was going to decorate the table so I was pulling decor from the foyer.  :)  AKA as winging it.  :)

The Jester has a busy role.  You can find him in the LSU tree, the foyer and now holding court as the centerpiece.

I bought a plain King Cake for the grands.  I believe Tiffani found the baby.  :)

We had a lot of sweets.  I had to buy these pretty cupcakes so I could use my Mardi Gras picks.

I bought this beauty at Ace Hardware.  I love going to Ace. There are so many neat things to see.  They have really nice garden decor and lots of LSU banners, rugs and flags.

#Acehardware

We bought the grands each a Tervis cup in a design they like.  The Star Wars is for Ms. A, the floral is for Sweet P and Batman is for Mr. W.  The hubs filled them with candy.

It wouldn't be a Valentine's Day celebration without chocolate dipped strawberries.

I didn't want to spend all of my time cooking so I picked up a Stouffer's lasagna with meat and sauce.  It is so good.  Our family loves it.  I usually have a salad and breadsticks as sides along with sweet tea.  Sweet P loves my sweet tea.  She said it's so professional.  :)  She also told me I should show her mom how to make it.  Gotta love those grands!!!

The grandkids loved decorating sugar cookies for Christmas so I baked some more sugar cookies in the shapes of hearts and teddy bears.  They were so excited to get to decorate more cookies.

They had a great time decorating their cookies.  I completely forgot to take any pics of their masterpieces.  :(  However, I did manage to snap a couple of pics just as they were about to leave.

Boys are so funny...it usually takes a couple of pics to get a good one.

We had a lot of fun and made some wonderful memories.

Do you like to celebrate the holidays with your kiddos or grandkids.  It is so surprising how much fun they have doing the simplest of things.  I want them to know how much we love them and how important they are to us.

Hope you have an amazing day!!!

Take care,

xoxoxo

Debbie

"Cease consuming, practice generosity."

-- Joan Halifax