Merry Christmas, everyone!

We had a pretty chill morning, making coffee and opening presents in the hotel room. Our first event was the Christmas Brunch at the Roosevelt Hotel where we are staying. On our way down we stopped in the lobby for photos since it was much less busy this morning that it had been on Christmas Eve at 11pm. Ha

We were seated in a ballroom with a great Jazz band playing Christmas songs along the side and TONS of brunch stations and selections on a buffet. Some highlights- a crab imperial Benedict station, a raw bar with shrimp, oysters, mussels and ceviche shooters, meat carving stations with sirloin, turkey, ham, etc, waffles, hot breakfast items, salads, a cheese station and desserts. I wish I had 4 stomachs because I would have eaten everything, it was all great.

After brunch we hung out in the room again to digest the large amount of brunch we just ate and the 3 mimosas I had with it ha. Then we headed across the city to the convention center where we had timed entry tickets to the NOLA ChristmasFest. It was a bit of a trek for us… but we knew we only had to walk it once because we would be taking a Uber to dinner later and then back to the hotel.

A sculpture dedicated to Hurricane Katrina across from the convention center

The ChristmasFest setup was really cool. Very open, spread out, various carnival rides, vendors, some food and drink and some ice skating!

Norah chose to make a wax hand art sculpture to take home over getting her face painted.
Ice Bocce was definitely the highlight of the day. Norah asked to play this about 6 times.
A collective coloring wall. We of course had to add our name.
Posing for photos on the Elf Walk at the #elfie station
Norah even got the staff to take photos of her lol
They had a Dumbo ride “just like at Disney World!” According to Norah lol
Norah decided she wanted to ride the spinning cups around by herself, so we stepped aside and let her go on by herself. Then two other little girls climbed in her car with her haha they had a good time together

After ChristmasFest, it was time to head to the dinner I think I was most looking forward to on the trip- Shaya out in the Garden District. We had watched an episode on New Orleans of Somebody Feed Phil and he was hanging out with Chef Shaya and he was discussing the love and care that he put into the pita bread at his restaurant and the hummus process- and man, have we both craved that pita bread ever since….so it is with great pleasure I can say- it 100% lived up to the hype and surpassed our expectations.

Norah was excited for the non-alcoholic drink list- she chose Matcha Lemonade
We shared a bottle of Barbera wine
The fried chicken hummus. We were only going to order the Tahini hummus and the waiter suggested this instead as it’s their favorite dish. So glad we listened.
The bread. Omg. The bread. It came to the table straight from the bread oven. Puffy and fantastic and they brought us 9 total pieces ha we took the last 3 home for breakfast the next morning.
Ikfa- a whipped cream cheese dip that was fabulous with dill and shallot.
Mixed pickles
A mint and beet dip that was very fresh.
The braised lamb shank with a tabouleh salad
Kegan totally annoyed that I make him wait to eat everything while I photograph it first haha
Norah with her requested chicken meal with pistachio rice and whipped feta.

After dinner, it was back in an Uber across the Garden District back downtown to the hotel. It was a very pretty drive along gorgeous houses. Not 100% certain we didn’t hear gunshots at one point at a stoplight. We’ll just say they were fireworks… Christmas fireworks…Ha