"I got the Baby!"

Starting tomorrow, this is what you'll see in our office until Mardi Gras...We all make New Years resolutions like losing weight, quitting smoking and drinking, saving money, and eating healthier food. In Louisiana, it is a bit more difficult to keep resolutions like these with Carnival season right around the corner. In the land of Twelfth Night revelry, opulent Carnival balls, wild parade parties, and king cakes, we might as well wait for Lent. It has become a tradition in offices and schools throughout Louisiana to give weekly king cake parties. Whoever finds the little pink plastic baby inside the king is supposed to buy the next king cake or host the next gathering. Thank goodness for those chefs who started putting cream cheese, lemon, and other fillings in those ghastly dry king cakes sprinkled with colored sugar.

I adhere to the first Carnival season Krewe's motto: "A little nonsense now and then is relished by the best of men!" So, whether you're a saint or a sinner, your New Year's resolutions are bound to come face to face with a king cake in this state. If you are really worried about your waistline, just remember what Jay Leno says: "Now there are more overweight people in America than average-weight people. So overweight people are now the average...which means, you have met your New Year's resolution."