NEW ORLEANS It’s always carnival time at Mardi Gras World. The family-run business has been making mega-floats for some of the biggest and best Mardi Gras parades for more than 60 years. The company is now showing off its innovative designs in a 300,000-square-foot warehouse, a fantasy world of papier-mché, fiberglass, plaster and millions of twinkling lights populated by pharaohs, superheroes, fairies, gorillas and other creations.

If it’s Thanksgiving, you’re probably cooking, eating, shopping or warming up the recliner for some serious parade- and football-watching.  But today is the first day of a long holiday weekend.  Whether you have a houseful of relatives, or only yourself to entertain, you need a plan, a strategy, strength and endurance.