ST. CHARLES WOMEN’S CLUB MARKS 50 YEARS ä 4G
THE EAST JEFFERSON
ADVOCATE
1G
WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 23, 2015 H
METAIRIE • KENNER • HARAHAN • JEFFERSON • ELMWOOD • RIVER RIDGE THENEWORLEANSADVOCATE.COM
SWEETNESS & LIGHTS
Advocate staff photo by SHERRI MILLER
Holiday lights and decorations on King’s Canyon Drive in the Park Timbers subdivision in Algiers
Rudolph’s nose might have created the original
holiday glow — predating, of course, even the Christmas trees that came into vogue in the New Orleans area around the 1870s. Those were lit, for brief moments of viewing, with candles positioned in holders among the branches. They weren’t the safest of yule lights, but they were the simplest. My, how times have changed. Today’s glorious lights can blink and pulse to music and change color. Through time, however, all these forms of illumination have shared the same mission: lighting the way for the spirit of Christmas to find us. Here’s a look at how neighborhoods around the area are ushering in the Advocate staff photo by RUSTY COSTANZA
season of peace and goodwill toward men.
Santa is one of a plethora of decorations at a house on Melody Drive in Metairie.
See more photos, page 7G.
Advocate staff photo by RUSTY COSTANZA
Lights adorn pine trees on West Esplanade at Melody Drive in Metairie. Holiday lights are on full display along Robert E. Lee Boulevard in Lake Vista. Advocate staff photo by JOHN MCCUSKER
Advocate staff photo by RUSTY COSTANZA
Lights flash in time with music at a house on Lake Trail Drive in Kenner.
St. Martin’s starts work on design center Hand-knit stockings are a family St. Martin’s Episcopal School in Metairie has broken ground on a new facility, The Gibbs Family Center for Innovation and Design. The new 5,000-square-foot building will operate as a design studio, prototype lab, classroom, production studio, woodworking and build shop, and community partnership workspace. It will be equipped with tools and supplies such as 3-D printers, modeling software, and video and audio equipment that will enable the rapid prototyping of ideas, field research and multimedia presentations. “The center’s name honors Marian and Larry Gibbs,
Eva Jacob Barkoff AROUND JEFFERSON
whose family has been involved in the St. Martin’s community for 26 years,” said Rob Norton, director of marketing and communications for St. Martin’s. “Their five children and one grandchild have all attended St. Martin’s, and Marian and Larry have served in a variety of capacities, including the Board of Trustees, the
Board of Visitors, the Mothers’ Club, the Dads’ Club and the Booster Club.” This $1.1 million project was funded entirely through individual and foundation donations. It is slated to open in fall 2016. The design and construction of the project, which will be located on the Haring Road side of St. Martin’s campus, will be handled by two local firms, Blitch Knevel Architects and F.H. Myer’s Construction.
New Year’s in Westwego
If you don’t have any plans yet to ring in the new year, the äSee BARKOFF, page 2G
holiday tradition that has legs
Patricia Finney Daniels welcomed two great-greatnieces into the family earlier this year, but little Stella and Olivia will receive their official welcome this Christmas, when Daniels presents them with personalized red, green and white holiday stockings. “When you get your stocking, you know you’ve arrived,” said Daniels’ daughter, Maggie Simon. “It is a rite of passage.” Daniels, 86, has made more than 120 Christmas stockings for family members, including her three siblings, their
Lynne Jensen
THROW ME SOMETHIN’
children and hers, spouses, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. But don’t imagine Daniels knitting in a rocking chair. Until she retired in 2000, after 50 years as a forensic serologist with the Orleans Parish
Coroner’s Office, she made Christmas stockings during down time in the crime lab and from a hallway bench at the criminal court building at Tulane and Broad, while she waited to testify. Working was important to Daniels. She was 36 when her husband, James, a riverboat pilot, suffered a fatal heart attack, leaving her to raise four young children, including a 6-week-old. Times were hard, and knitting Christmas stockings was äSee JENSEN, page 5G