Thanksgiving Shopping 2011, Round 1

It was a dark and stormy day.

View from Eric's car of the Farmer's Market.

Not a joke.  It was pouring rain this morning, and instead of getting up early to go to the Farmer's Market - the first time in a long time - to buy our vegetables for Thanksgiving, we slept in.  At 9:00, I finally got up, and Eric followed me at 9:30.  We puttered around a bit, getting dressed, then Eric asked me the question on both of our minds.  "Do you think anyone will be at the Farmer's Market today with all this rain?"

I answered with more assurance than I felt.  Maybe I was a bit delusional.   "Sure they'll be there, even with the rain.  Do you think they're going to miss the last weekend day of selling before Thanksgiving?   No way!"

Well, like I said in my last post, sometimes being delusional is a good thing, for when we got in the car and drove there, stopping only at the ATM for cash money, pretty-much all the vendors were there with their wares set up.  Gorgeous vegetables... equally as gorgeous fruits!  Breads and pastries and sauces and Hummus.  The crowd's spirits were dampened, but our regular vendor's attitudes were that of fortitude, and we bought more than we should have because it's Thanksgiving and they're vegetables, and we appreciated these fine folks being out there in the rain despite the obvious reasons not to be.

A couple of my favorite vendors:

There are many MANY more booths that I frequent every single time I'm out too, although most of them don't have big, pretty banners like these.

Look at the colors of the market today.  Unbelievable!

 

All of this makes me very glad that I live in Southern California, even on days like this:

 

But although today's weather did not dampen our Holiday Spirit one bit, we do have some dark clouds ahead, in the name of a Costco run, and also, the turkey we are currently defrosting was in Eric's freezer for three whole years!  There is no expiration date on the bird, but we have no idea whether it will prove to be good or not when the time comes to prepare it for the feast.

Before Costco, though, we have to go to a regular supermarket, and also Whole Foods.  Food for thought, food for intuition and blogging, and food for an army.  Thank goodness we live in a state of plenty, where the children have the option of turning their noses up at vegetables and we don't have to eat the turkey if it's anything less than perfection.  Our family has a lot to be thankful for.