Fat Tuesday!!

You know what that means ---

King Cake!!

This is a cake - kind of like an Easter braid without the braid - with gooey sugar icing and decorated with purple, green and gold sprinkles.  In case you're wondering about the colors, the purple stands for justice, the green for faith and the gold for power.  They are the three colors that embody the whole Mardi Gras celebration.  The cakes, the beads, the floats, the masks,  you name it - those three colors are everywhere.

Oh, and there's a baby in the cake.  Each cake has a little plastic baby baked inside of it.  Tradition says that the person who gets the baby has to host the next years' party.  

And lots of people in dressed up in (some pretty weird) costumes

And some dressed to the nines

This is my father and one of his sisters, my Auntie Pearl.  Auntie Pearl and Uncle Mert moved to Louisiana years ago - sometime in the 1960's I think - and they belonged to a club that had a Mardi Gras Ball every year.  There would be a theme to the ball, and all the ladies would dress in costumes relating to the theme, and the men were in tuxes.  This was the year after Uncle Mert passed away.  Auntie Pearl had asked my dad if he would escort her to the ball, and then had sent up Uncle's tux so he could have it altered.  We went down and enjoyed the festivities.  Always lots of fun!

And this is my absolute favorite picture of Auntie Pearl and Uncle Mert. They were the King and Queen of the ball that year.  Such a sweet picture....