What’s on the Christmas menu this year? Chicken & sausage gumbo, crabmeat casserole (a misnomer–it’s more of a devilled crab or giant crabcake than a casserole), potato salad, ham, fresh, locally grown cauliflower & broccoli, skinny haricots verts with bacon and almonds, sauteed broccoli rabe from my backyard, a fresh coconut cake, and apple pie. Oh, and Mary Ellen’s brownies, just because.
Of course, that’s the *planned* menu. Inevitably, additional dishes will appear and we will all eat too much and feel slightly miserable by late afternoon, in the best possible way.
Merry Christmas….from the family, Robert Earl Keen style.
(Surely the best Christmas song ever, slightly ahead of Charles Brown’s “Please Come Home for Christmas”, Dr. John’s version of “Silent Night”, and Beausoleil’s “Papa St. Nick”.)
Bouillie 
Great Christmas songs. Please Come Home for Christmas is my favorite and my favorite version is belted out by New Orleans own Marva Wright. I can remember going to Tipitina’s every Thanksgiving night to watch Marva kick off the Christmas season. Thanks for reminding me of those memories.
May she rest in peace!
One of the best Christmas albums is Aaron Neville’s Soulful Christmas. His Please come home for Christmas “ain’t half bad” but his Louisiana Christmas Day will make you get up off the couch/turn the volume up and mooove!
Anything that breaks through the post-Christmas-dinner food coma and makes you move is good.