Dickens Christmas Fair

Todd and I had a little adventure a weekend or so ago.

We decided to trek to San Francisco and go to the

Dickens Christmas Fair.

As I mentioned in my previous post,

I was looking for new adventures,

and this looked to be something I would be interested in.

Todd was up for it, so we left bright and early Saturday morning.

It happened to be a pretty stormy day,

so travel wasn't particularly fast,

but it was no problem.

Todd and I just conversed the entire way there

(and back if truth be told),

The actual fair was at the Cow Palace,

but not inside the main arena.

The event was held in the two building located

directly behind the main building.

I had never heard anything about the Dickens Fair

prior to the event, so I was a little worried that it would be

 similar to the Christkindlmarkt Lexx and I had just visited.

As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, 

I knew this wasn't going to be the case.

The lower parking lot was full, 

and the upper lot was filling up quickly.

The event reminded me somewhat of a Renaissance Fair

except, of course, that it was based in a different time period.

When you entered the building,

it was as if you stepped back to 1800's England.

There were little vignettes that you could peek in on.

This one happened to be of a family being served

 dinner by their butler.  In the next room,their maid

was trying to figure something out.  I just never

figured out what she was trying to do.

There were lots of shops to purchase

various goods.  There were things like food,

clothes, hats, jewelry, art...you name it,

it was probably there.

There was definitely lots of entertainment.

There were various musicians throughout the

venue, as well as shows, and various random

people walking around.  Todd read that there

were 700 actors at the event.

Musicians performing on the street.

What looked to be an interactive comedy show...

but I'm not positive about that.

Women dressed in appropriate garb.

It was difficult to tell the general

public from the actors.  

We saw several people enter the venue

 with us dressed in their fancy costumes.

One of the most random things at the fair

was this humongous robot.  He stood probably 

around 8 1/2 feet tall.  He was being led around

by his inventor.  That was pretty awesome,

and definitely not something you see every day.

Todd and I ended up exploring the fair for about

3 1/2 hours, but we got so hot that we decided to 

head out and go to dinner.

We dressed way to warm for the venue 

and were sweating like crazy. 

The ride home was just as wet as the ride there,

but we had plenty to talk about.

We decided to go again next year,

but we want to plan out our day a little better.

Next year we will watch a couple shows,

shop and then eat dinner there.

Plus, it's more fun when we have the kids with us.

We want to go on a day that all of us can attend.

Lexx was too tired and Austin had to work this year.

I can't wait to see what they think about the event.

It was really fun, and something new and interesting.

So have you done anything new and fun that

you would recommend to friends and family?

I'm always looking for something new.

Christkindlmarkt

I wanted to do something a little 

different this holiday.

I'd seen a vlog on a Christkindlmarkt

in Chicago, and decided I wanted to try 

and find one in my local area.

For those of you who are unfamiliar,

a Christkindlmarkt is generally a street

market associated with the four weeks of Advent.

They originally started in Germany 

during the middle ages.

Christkindl translates to "Christ child".

These markets are generally held outside 

in open-air stalls, and sell a variety of

goods including food, drink, and seasonal goods.

After doing a little research, and watching a vlog,

I got busy researching and actually found one in

the Sacramento area.  Talk about excited!

Lexx volunteered to go check it out with me.

So we headed down after the BBBS shopping event.

I would say we arrived around 1PM, 

and I could hardly could hardly contain myself.

We had to park a couple blocks away, so when we

turned the corner where the market was taking place,

I was a little surprised it was housed inside a building.

No big deal, I was sure there was plenty to do inside.

The entrance was decorated beautifully,

and there was a Santa looking character

greeting all attendees.

Lexx and I heard music in the background,

and as we entered the main room...

WHOMP, WHOMP...

it looked like a normal little local 

Christmas Fair that we have in our neighborhood.

 There was singing and performances.

There was some German food,

but everything else just looked like your good old

Christmas fair.  I didn't bother taking any pictures

because frankly, it wasn't that exciting.

One good thing we did end up getting

that I had never had before were

sugar and cinnamon almonds.

Mercy, they were delicious!

So overall, it was a flop,

but maybe only because I had a 

preconceived notion of what it was 

supposed to look and be like.

Just so you have an idea of why I

was disappointed, here is a link to the 

market in Chicago.

http://www.christkindlmarket.com/

And here is a picture of part of it below.

via

Shopping For a Cause - BBBS

The girlie and I had so much fun this past Saturday.

We woke up way too early so that we could go shopping.

This time it wasn't for us, we were asked to be volunteer shoppers

for the Big Brothers Big Sisters Snowball Shopping Event.

We had to meet our littles by 7 AM, so it was a super early morning.

Breakfast was provided to all who participated,

and then we were shuttled to our local Target store to go shopping.

We were greeted by the most adorable elves,

who just so happen to be K9 police dogs. 

The event is sponsored by several organizations,

but the police/sheriff, local fire department, and 

Target were major sponsors. 

The littles were allowed a $200 budget,

and the gal we had was so sweet and frugal.

We shopped our hearts out for 2 hours before 

she finally had found enough to come close to meeting her budget. 

Lexx had a super little.

This cute little one didn't want to wake up to go shopping.

She was mad at Santa, and asked her mom

why Santa had to wake up so early when 

it wasn't even Christmas.

She eventually got in the Christmas spirit,

and by the end of the event was sporting

two headbands she had picked out at once.

Lexx and I had so much fun,

and plan on doing it again next year.

It was only 3 hours out of our day,

and the children appreciated everything 

they were able to buy.

It was definitely a fun 3 hours!

So have you volunteered lately?

If so, for what cause?