Hot Dogs, Marshmallows....and Gumbo

Our first "adventure" of 2012 was building a fire in our backyard. We have had many, but this is the first in our new house. We enjoy sitting by the fire roasting hot dogs and marshmallows.

Our love for time spent around a fire goes way back. I can remember sitting for hours in front of what seemed like an all-night fire on the levee of the Atchafalaya Basin. We also had big bonfires on our property with the entire neighborhood growing up. We would either have a crawfish or crab boil to accompany it.

My greatest memory I can recall is roasting a pig overnight over a fire called a Cochon de Lait. It is the slow roasting of a small pig overnight. The time in between was where the fun began throughout the night. I never was allowed to stay up all night, but the time before was fun. I remember playing a card game called Cadillac. My Dad would let me play his hand for him. One time, I remember winning $10 (which was like a thousand in my mind) and my Dad would not let me take the money home. I guessed later that he owed some debts from past card games. I really didn't care because I was able to spend time with him. After waking up the next morning to an indescribable aroma, the pig would be removed from it's roasting rack, ice water poured onto it's skin to make cracklin's and everyone would dive in. It may not sound appetizing to some, but it was the highlight of each spring spent at that house.

Last night, we were able to roast hot dogs with all the fixin's, marshmallows, and we even made s'mores as a family. It was so much fun showing Annabelle how to start a fire, including fire safety tips. Her favorite part was pulling apart a dead vining plant from our outside storage building and putting it into the fire. The buds on the plant as they burned looked like fireflies. We had such a good time and we were a little disappointed when we had to put out the fire. We even had a s'mores-gone-wrong-moment. The picture on the right speaks for itself.

We look forward to spending a lot of time around the fire this winter. We have shared much time in the past with my mom, sister, brother, and their families. The absolute funniest is when a few years ago we were around a fire for Christmas and a mouse ran onto my sister's foot. She then kicked the mouse onto the bottom of the blanket that was on my lap and it crawled up near my shoulder! I threw the cup of gumbo I had in my hand into the air and it landed partially on my Mom. The next day, I noticed that the gumbo covered most of the side of our house. We all ended up running in the house and leaving the kids outside. Great parenting huh?

Well, here's to hot dogs & s'mores and even flying gumbo...and many more "adventures"....