Downtown adventures....

We left the house early this morning, headed for the annual Nutcracker Christmas Market at Reliant Center. Thousands upon thousands of people (mostly women) were on line, and we got there half an hour before they opened up.

The first thing we did when we walked through the doors was to get on line at the booth for the Donne di Domani spaghetti sauce. That's the city-famous homemade sauce cooked up by a group of Italian ladies who sell out their sauce supply before the end of the first day of this four-day holiday market. We bought just a few jars last year. This time, we bought four cases. At $10.00 per jar, that's a lot of sauce. We will give out a bunch of them as Christmas gifts, and bring some of them up to Mayberry. The ladies donate the money from their sauce sales to local charities, so it all goes to good causes. This sauce is very, very good... but I still say that my Aunt Dolly's spaghetti sauce is better. My husband hasn't ever had my Aunt Dolly's sauce, so he doesn't understand.... and my own sauce is pretty good, if I do say so myself. But the Donne di Domani sauce is just excellent.... and besides, it saves me from cooking, and I'm all for that.

They have a package-pickup service at this huge holiday market, so we didn't have to drag four cases of spaghetti sauce around while we looked at the other displays. There must have been six hundred vendors at the market this morning. They hold it in Reliant Center, which is next to the AstroDome..... huge venue..... lots of sellers, lots of buyers. We walked around for about three hours.

I found some pretty table decorations for Thanksgiving, and some that I can use for both Christmas and New Year's. They had so many pretty little table-top Christmas trees there, but I didn't buy a one. We also found delicious homemade pies, dips, chili mixes, chocolate-covered cherries.... so much food there and everyone was giving out free samples.

We saw about 85% of the displays...... after that, our shopping bags started to get heavy, the aisles were getting over-crowded, and all the Christmas decorations were starting to look the same. We left the building, found our car, drove around to the package-pickup to get the cases of the sauce, and away we went.

We drove to the downtown Thai restaurant that we like so much and had lunch there.... we brought more than half of it home, since we had tasted free samples all morning at the holiday market. On the way back from the restaurant, we drove by the Whole Foods Market, and decided to stop in there to see what it's like. Our friends K and B shop there and have told us how great it is, so in we went.

Well.... what a wonderful place to shop--- and that's coming from me, who hates to shop for groceries. But this store was different... lots of gourmet-looking cooked foods, made with good organic ingredients and not filled up with salt and preservatives. Cheeses and olives and fruits and vegetables from all over the country...... a beautiful meat counter, a bountiful fish counter.... you name it, they had it, and they had things we've never seen in any other supermarket. I just wish we hadn't been so tired from the holiday market, because we could've walked around the Whole Foods Market a little more and did some serious grocery shopping. We did buy a few things... some homemade granola, blueberry juice that my husband had found in Maine, homemade spinach lasagne, a creamy swiss cheese from Wisconsin...... and I can't remember now what else because I'm just so darn tired from walking around all day long.

But we'll go back there, now that we know where it is. I should mark this day with a gold star.... my husband shopped like a trooper.... the holiday market, the Whole Foods market.... not once did he tell me that he would sit down for a little while and catch up with me an hour later. I think he likes the Nutcracker Christmas Market because they have so many different vendors from around the country.... and now that he's been in the Whole Foods Market, he's ready to step up to gourmet grocery shopping. Honestly, that store had such an international flair, with ethic foods from around the world, and everything inbetween. And there were plenty of people there handing out free samples of everything you could think of. Amazing store.

It's been a busy day, to say the least. We left the house before nine o'clock this morning, and didn't get home till just before five. We weren't home for too long when the phone rang.... young Miss C wanted to know if I could pick her up after school tomorrow. She missed me today, she said--- I had told her yesterday that we were going downtown today. She just loves to come home with me after school, she told me today, and she's hoping to help me with more Christmas decorations tomorrow. Fine with me..... I told her we could put up the silver aluminum tree tomorrow, if she'd like. Her response: Oh goodie, goodie, goodie! I just love that child.