Saturday, February 21, 2009

Mardi Gras and Moon Pies

Where we live, Mardi Gras is kind of a big deal.

No, wait. That's an understatement.

Mardi Gras isn't just a one day thing on Fat Tuesday, it is a month long party with event after event. Everything from formal balls, to decorated houses, to King Cake, to parade after parade after parade...after parade. Honest to God, there must be 50 from the time it starts in late January till midnight on Fat Tuesday.

We attended our 1st parade this year, making this a total of 3 since moving here. It's funny because every parade takes the same route downtown, and every parade is full of floats with people on it throwing all the same stuff - beads, janky stuffed animals, plastic cups, candy and Moon Pies. There are some local high school marching bands that play, some cars filled with King and Queens from each "society", and police motorcycles up the wazoo.

Suffice it to say, if you've seen one Mardi Gras parade in this town, you've seen them all.

Moon Pies are the official "mascot" of the Mardi Gras season, although I'm quite positive that drunken people with jester hats on could be considered one as well. I'd never tried a Moon Pie before last year and I was glad I had waited so long to try it. They're pretty gross, in my opinion, and as Jason put it, only good for if you're totally starving.

The Big Little One did have a blast waving to the policemen and dancing to the beat of the drums marching by (a skill he gets from his mother and not his father, who couldn't find a beat if it were handed to him), so it was worth it. And I managed to NOT eat a single piece of candy or Moon Pie, so that was a small victory.

Fat Tuesday is fast approaching, but I changed my WW day to start over today so I couldn't have an excuse to give in and eat. Now, I gotta figure out what to give up for Lent. Maybe sugar. But NOT Splenda or Equal. I can't go totally cold turkey!

1 comment:

Mary H. said...

LOL...I'm so not a Moon Pie fan. However, I did just come across a banana and cream cheese Moon Pie recipe that I must have cut out a long time ago (AKA before counting points)!