We celebrated the new year this year pretty simply. On New Year’s Eve, we had Josh and Elise over, and Christine’s little brother Steven, and his girlfriend Jennie, came down from Dallas for the night.

We enjoyed a safe evening in the house and backyard, and rang in the New Year with our closest friends (the best way to do it).

On New Year’s morning, Steven, Jennie, Christine and I got up and drove to New Orleans to spend the weekend with Michael, Christine’s older brother. (Long drive boys and girls – 510 miles one way).

We stopped in Houston on the way and grabbed a little refueling (snacks) at Debbie and Raymond’s and hung out with them and Roland and Barbara for about an hour before resuming our trip. We left Austin around noon, and arrived in New Orleans around 9:30/10:00ish with about an hour break in Houston.

On Thursday night, we walked around the French Quarter a bit, finally enjoying some Bignets (cajun doughnuts) and coffee late that evening. On Friday night we hit the town hard… hit a bunch of bars on Bourbon street before ending up at Absinthe (because it wasn’t all that crowded or smoky).

We ended up sleeping pretty late on Saturday morning, before doing a little driving around the Garden district and then heading home… the return trip only took about 8 hours (instead of 10) and I only got pulled over once for speeding (right outside of Austin too dangit!)

Had a blast, and we’re all looking forward to 2004… We hope you are too!

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