Sunday morning Marc and I rolled over to VAQUERO'S® restaurant (sadly, now closed) for lunch. Mom, Jackie and Steve joined us shortly thereafter. We all got the buffet, and it was good. I recommend the buffet. We also had some of the dessert, a bread pudding topped with coffee cake, which was delicious. After lunch we went to Jennifer's place; excuse me, Aunt Nell and Uncle Norman's house. Marc, Jackie and Steve went shopping while Mom and I visited with Jennifer. Jennifer had not eaten, so we looked through the yellow pages for a suitable restaurant. Just when we decided on a restaurant, Aunt Nell and Uncle Norman arrived. Uncle Norman has lost some weight and is looking very healthy. We all visited for a couple of hours. Then Aunt Nell drove Mom and me to the hotel where Mom, Jackie and Steve were staying. Mom and I then drove on over to Marc's place. When we got to Marc's place, Paul and Rochelle and Miles were visiting. So, we all visited for about an hour, then Marc took Paul and Rochelle and Miles to the airport. Mom, Jackie and Steve left for the hotel to get dressed to dinner. Meanwhile Marc and I got dressed for dinner as well.
We ate dinner at THE UPPERLINE®, a great restaurant in uptown New Orleans. Every year, THE UPPERLINE® offers dinner until midnight on New Year's Eve. So, THE UPPERLINE® is the place to go for a New Year's Eve celebration in New Orleans. Marc's friends Larry and Belinda picked us up, and we arrived at the restaurant to find that Mom, Jackie and Steve, and Jennifer were already present. They even had been seated. We brought 2 bottles of Steve's champagne with us. The waiter took the bottles and chilled them. We ordered some appetizers while we waited for the wine to chill. The waiter then served us the 1st bottle of champagne, which we drank very slowly. I of course drank a fair amount . Our waiter then brought out the appetizers, along with a bottle of Magnum Red Wine. The Magnum was great stuff, so I drank a fair amount of that as well. As we closed in on midnight, the waiters brought everybody party hats, horns, and noisemakers. I was feeling festive and launched into the opening verse of AMAZING GRACE. About this time, Steve called his father in Australia. Steve then passed the phone around to everybody. When he passed the phone to me, I remembered to carry on with more AMAZING GRACE. I think Stephen, Steve's father, got the impression that I was drunk. Anyhow, we counted down the New Year and toasted it with Steve's 2nd bottle of champagne. We eventually rolled out of the restaurant around 1 AM.
We all got up late Monday morning... obviously. Mom came over to Marc's place around 10 and visited with us for a while. She then went back to the hotel. Later, we all went over to Aunt Nell and Uncle Norman's place for lunch. Aunt Nell and Jennifer prepared some ham, roast beef, black-eye peas, lettuce, and potato salad. Aunt Nell also made some great bread pudding.
After lunch Uncle Norman and I watched college football. Mom and Aunt Nell, along with Marc, Jackie and Steve, and Jennifer, went shopping. Aren't you surprised? Uncle Norman and I saw 2 very good games before the others returned from their shopping expedition. Uncle Norman even cleaned the leaves during halftime. Around 5 PM Mom, Marc, Jackie and Steve, and I bid Aunt Nell and Uncle Norman and Jennifer a fond adieu. We then departed for dinner. After dinner Mom dropped Marc and me off at his place and took Jackie and Steve back to the hotel with her.
Early (like 6 AM) Tuesday morning Mom picked me up at Marc's place. We then dropped Jackie and Steve off at the airport and headed back home. Mom then got her hair done at Elda's while I took a nap. Mom and I then ate lunch at COPELAND'S® restaurant (another big surprise :-). Around 4 o'clock, my old buddy Mark Fitzpatrick came over to visit. I gave Mark a tour of my Mom's "new" house (he had never seen it). He marvelled at how much space Mom has compared to European apartments and homes (Mark and his wife Anne and their 2 children live in Switzerland). Then we commenced to discussing the State of the Union and the world and catching up on what has happened to each other in the past year. So, we had an enjoyable visit. After a couple of hours, Mark left to relieve Anne on baby duties (their daughter Eleanor was born in October).
The next morning I packed and drove back to Houston. And that was my New Year's weekend!
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