Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Harvest Festival with a Twist, Literally

As many of you know, I love a good harvest festival. Every year I have gone with my Aunt to the Harvest Festival in San Francisco. It is usually right around this time of year. If you haven’t been to a harvest festival before, it is a market where people bring their products for sale. It is usually things like decorative items, toys, and food products. Some of the things were really tacky, some were beautifully made, some food items we bought year after year after year. We loved it. We usually managed to do quite a bit of Christmas shopping at the Harvest Festival, but mostly for ourselves!! It was our tradition.

I was feeling a bit blue about missing it this year. It really signaled the beginning of the holidays for me and I miss my aunt. One of the women I met here invited me to go to a Christmas Fair at a local convention center. I didn’t know if it was much like the Harvest Festival but I decided it might be fun. It ended up being a lot of fun. It is very much like the Harvest Festival but I think it was bigger. I bought some Christmas decorations, pillow covers, a present or two, and a sticky toffee pudding. The food is always the best part of a Harvest Festival and this one was not a disappointment. In fact this one had something that makes it better in one respect: ALCOHOL!!! Yes, we were able to taste many different alcohol products. I tasted wine, sloe gin, wine, sloe whiskey, wine, rum, wine, whiskey, wine. You get the idea. This is definitely a country with a drinking culture. You can taste wine at the supermarket and the harvest festival. Your 15 year old can carry wine in her luggage.

All in all the Christmas Fair was a good substitute for the Harvest Festival with one notable exception. My aunt. So I think I need to start a new tradition, Harvest Festival in London every year. What do you think Auntie M???

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