[caption id="attachment_4389" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Christmas Eve"]
[/caption]Carol Forsloff --'Twas the night before Christmas and hardly a Natchitoches person was stirring outside, not even a mouse, in spite of the many visitors driving the main boulevards to see the holiday lights. There are rooms in the inns nearby, but everything else is closed.
The streets bustle with folks that have come to Natchitoches for the weekend of Christmas, in the town of the Steel Magnolias. Some stay in the bed and breakfast places that line Front Street into Jefferson on one end and Washington Street on the other. Their choices are limited for places to eat, as only the Japanese restaurant and a local pub are open Christmas weekend. Mariners, the fancier restaurant on the river, is also closed on Christmas eve. The fortunate who may have had those rare dinners included at bed and breakfast homes were fine. The other folk could walk along the river and eat fast food from the carts.
But despite this omission, the place downtown is that picture perfect postcard, so impressive it's worth a visit anytime during the holiday season.
Tomorrow we feature a story from our youngest writer and a holiday story as well. Tonight is the night for measures of time with family and friends, including an old journalist who posts this story tonight, to wish everyone everywhere the merriest Christmas of all, from Natchitoches, Louisiana, the Christmas town of the South on the night of Jesus' birth.
