Dias Festivos

Mary Ann stopped by this morning to invite us to join them in visiting a crafts/gifts fair at the McAllen Convention Center. The fair, called Dias Festivos, is sponsored by the Junior League of McAllen to benefit the children of the community. The hall was a-bustle with shoppers in the holiday spirit, with Christmas music playing and Santa waiting for children to come talk with him.

The various booths featured an eclectic mix of jewelry, clothing, gift items, art pieces, and food, with a Tupperware booth and a Cutco knife booth thrown in for good measure. Lots of bling! We saw some very nice hand-carved and hand-painted santas. A small one ran $185, so we passed them up. Having a small living space makes it easier for us to window shop without buying anything.

Mary Ann checks out some clever purses with interchangeable covers.

One unique item was a painting called "Grand Ol Gang," featuring a group of jovial men sitting around a poker table. Only after looking at it for a moment did you start to notice the familiar faces. All the men were presidents, from Abraham Lincoln to George Bush II. As the booth owner pointed out, all were Republican presidents.



However, a quick search reveals that the artist, Andy Thomas, also painted a Democratic version called "True Blues."


Mary Ann tried to buy a pair of kitchen towels for their daughters, but the booth had only one available. The towel's message read, "There are two choices for dinner....take it or leave it!"

We took yet another coffeemaker back to the store, this time because the finish was already wearing off in a splotchy way after a couple of days. We found a programmable Mr. Coffee that looked reasonable at Target, so we bought it. Now we'll see how well it works.

Tonight we spent some time again sorting through our pictures. We're in September,and we are already finding that we're not sure which waterfall we're looking at...