Like a Kid on Christmas

What.a.weekend.  It started on Thursday evening around 6 when G-Dod rolled into town and continued into Sunday when his car was the last to leave our house.  There was much anticipation, excitement, and anxiety over this weekend that we were all like kids on Christmas Eve.  And come Christmas morn, Santa did not dissapoint.
I worked half a day on Friday, picked up a pizza on my home, and walked in the house to find 3 boys having a grand ole time while the delicous aroma of Jambalaya fiiltered through my house.  Hubs had begun cooking for our tailgate already!  The smell of the holy trinity of Cajun cooking - onions, celery, and bellpepper - mixed with pork and andouille sausage wafted through the house.  I'm sure you non-Cajuns are looking at that "andouille" word thinking, "huh??".  So I'll help ya out:  It's pronounced Ahn-DOO-wee.  But I guess if you wanna get all fancy with the "real" French pronunciation, it's Ahn-DWEE.  If you wanna know what it is, google it.  All I know is, my hubs can sure make a mean pot o' Jambalaya.

The rest of the afternoon we had multiple visitors filing in and out of the house.  Which made me happy and sad at the same time.  Happy because I was thrilled to have visitors at the house.  These are friends that we see maybe twice a year (if we're lucky), so it was awesome to see them hanging around the house.  But sad at the same time, realizing that this won't happen again for a very long time because we don't live in the same city (and haven't for over 4 years).  And it's something we miss greatly.
We had a sitter on Friday night so we were able to go to dinner with the BR crew that came in town.  We had 17 people going to dinner.  Yeah, the wait was a lil long for that many people.  So we ended up just taking over the bar area and ordering food from there.  It was a great time to be able to catch up with everyone and get excited about tailgating and game day.

This is my long-time friend Ally, whom I met my freshman year of college when I joined a sorority.  Which was 10 years ago, I might add.  So, yeah, that pretty much makes us old.

The hubs on left, his BFF G-dod on the right and G-dod's dad, Bush, in the middle.

Me with some of the guys at dinner.  

That's C-Kirb all the way on the right who was one of my house guests for the weekend.  :)

After dinner, we all headed back to our casa, where house guests #3 and #4 had just arrived.  We all headed straight for bed... Santa was coming...

And then it was GAMEDAY...

Like I said, Kids.On.Christmas.  Everyone was up and at 'em Saturday morning ready to go!  We got everything loaded up in the cars, and once the sitter arrived at 10, we were out the door and headed to tailgate.

Hey, Jerry!  NEWSFLASH:  LSU folks don't wait until 2pm to start tailgating.  Yes, that's what time the tailgate lots were originally supposed to open.  But, "By popular demand", the time was moved up to noon a week prior to the game.  Which is still pretty late for us.  It's just not how we roll.  We got down to the stadium around 10:30 and there was already a line waiting to get in the lot.  Some "official Cowboys Stadium staff" finally decided it might not be the best alternative to have all streets going in and out of the stadium complete shut down because of stopped traffic, so they opened the lots about 5 minutes after us being in line.  Score!  We set up our tents, tables, chairs, and all other tailgating necessities and had an awesome time.  I saw some sorority sisters I hadn't seen in what felt like forever so it was great to catch up with them. 

Zeta ladies!

More visitors!

I also had some work people come by the tailgate.  My boss happens to be an Oregon duck fan, so we had to show him how we roll at LSU.  :)

I think it's hilarious that everyone in the picture is doing something different.  Including BT throwin up the UT Hook 'em Horns.  And how awesome does my hubs look with a sideways ghetto hat?  So hott.

It just isn't tailgating without these guys!  G-dod, AD, and C-Kirb.

Overall, our tailgate party was great!  We had lots of visitors come by for a chat and a bite to eat with us; which to me is what it's all about.  It's crazy how time flies by (even in the sweltering heat) when you are chatting with old friends all day long.  It seemed like we had just gotten there and the next thing I know we are packing everything up to head inside Jerry World for the game...

But before the game, we have a little thing called pre-game (creatively, named, huh?).  This picture is of the band all lined up ready to take the field.  It's the moment all LSU fans been dreaming of since last January, the second that the Cotton Bowl ended and we knew that we would have to wait a whole 8 months before seeing the Goldenband from Tigerland step onto a football field again.  And then the drums start the cadence, and the band files onto the field.  And then just four notes send chills down my arm and the crowd erupts with excitement.  And it's official:  Tiger football is BACK!

We sat with one of my reps and his son for the game.  Here we are before the game started

And what a game it was!  LSU is good.  And I mean really good.  Strong, big, fast, athletic... And that was just the first game!  I'm super excited to see what this season will bring for us.  We are planning to hit up at least 3 home games this season and possibly take the little munchkins in for one. 

Victory shot after the game.  We had such a great time!

Sunday morning we were all still basking in our victory watching all reports on ESPN about how good LSU looked.  We had all of our friends over (at least the ones that could make it) again on Sunday morning for a little farewell breakfast/brunch.  I made pumpkin bread and monkey bread and had lots of coffee ready for their 7 hour trek.  Sunday was like when Christmas just keeps going because you have Christmas on Christmas day with your immediate fam and then have Christmas the day after with grandparents.  And honestly, LSU winning the game was just a bonus.  Don't get me wrong, I like for the Tigers to win football games, but we had such a fun time with everyone that a "W" was the cherry on top.  Just like on Christmas morning when you find that Santa brought you everything you asked for, plus some.  You open all your presents and get tons more cool stuff.  And just when you think it's all over, you go outside to find the shiny new bike you've been asking Santa for.  Just like that.  Only better.

Much love,

E