Kenneth and Heuetta were a real lifeline throughout the long months of November and December. They live less than a mile from us, and Heuetta works right across the street, so it’s easy for them to stop by and see how we are. And they sure did a great job at it!
November
Starting in November, they’d stop by with care packages of food, or they’d invite us to drop over for a beer and food on weekend evenings. One wonderful Saturday in late November, Kenneth had gone crab fishing, and we got invited over to a crab boil. I have never seen so many crabs in my life.
We hung around outside watching the whole process and learning – one trick we learned is that they pour a huge jar of jalapeno juice in, along with half the jalapenos, as the crabs are boiling. What a great piquant taste it gives!
Heuetta taught us how to shell the crabs, and I was extremely proud of the fact that I came in second after Heuetta for the number shelled…and that’s really something because Heuetta’s crab-shelling prowess is renowned. Of course, she got her number done in half the time it took me…
Only a week later we got invited to a barbecue celebrating their wedding anniversary. Someone had shot a wild boar, so we had barbecued wild boar and deep-fried turkey. The wild boar was a first for us, but we’d had the good luck to have deep-fried turkey at Pastor Doug and Mona Beth’s for Thanksgiving.
In case you’re wondering, the entire turkey is injected with seasonings and spices, and then it’s dropped whole into the huge pot of oil. Needless to say, this is done outside with a special propane gas setup. You simply wouldn’t believe how delicious it is…both Chelsea and I like it much better than turkey cooked the traditional way.
Remember the story of Kenneth getting shot from a bullet ricocheting off an alligator he’d caught? He’s still getting a hard time about that, and at the barbecue, his son and grandson presented him with a “Darwin’s Award” – they got a photocopy of a Purple Heart, colored it in carefully, and presented it to him. Good thing he’s got a good sense of humor…
December
Kenneth and Heuetta didn’t slack off in December either. One of the first things they did was to dig out their small fiber optic Christmas tree, about 24 inches high, and loan it to us for the season. We loved it! It looked like a real tree, but each branch/needle on the tree was fiber optic cable, so the light show was just amazing.
We’d turn the lights out at night and watch it, and we’d turn it on during the dark stormy days – it kept us perked up watching it during those long hours of writing.
They made sure we got to Wal-Mart every few weeks, and one particularly memorable day, Heuetta invited us back to the house where she taught us how to make crawfish egg rolls. I made sure to get the recipe from her, as they were some of the most awesome treats we’ve had yet on the trip.
We helped them put up lights at their house, and they drove us around town several times to see the truly amazing displays of lights and Christmas scenes – there’s a competition every year in town, so many families go all out. There’s one house we passed on our bike rides that started putting up the display in October and didn’t get it fully taken down until late January!
We loved going back to watch the competition between the houses – Erika and her family live right next door to Kenneth and Heuetta, and every year the lights and accessories get bigger and better at each home. This year’s was particularly amazing as so many decorations were on huge sales at Wal-Mart, even several weeks before Christmas.
Kenneth commented late one night, as we admired the view of the lights, “With all the sales, these things don’t cost too much. It’s the cost of the storage shed to put ‘em all in!” Shortly after that, I overheard Erika tell Chelsea, “With all the work it was to put all this up, we ain’t takin’ these things down till summer. We’ll be redneck Cajuns.” (Note: every single bit of the decorations on both yards was down and stored within two days after Christmas!)
Christmas gifts
We’d been getting a really hard time from Kenneth about when we are going to leave, and he’d already made a comment about putting us on his Christmas list. Finally we had to let him know, yes, we’d be here until Christmas.
One day shortly after that, Heuetta started discussing their Christmas giving. She said they usually give one gift to family and then cash. Since we felt like family at that point, we assured her that cash works fine for us. We all got a good laugh out of that.
Then only a week or so later, Kenneth presented each of us with a pink John Deere baseball hat and calendars for 2009 – the exact same one I’d been wanting. How awesome is that? I love my new calendar, and Chelsea has her pink hat on constantly.