Christmas preview

The loot, originally uploaded by cathilee.

I spent Sunday afternoon at the annual international bazaar held by SIWA and the diplomatic community - 50 Countries and 5 Senses - and by the end I am sure a lot of people there thought I had lost mine.

I am already looking forward to next year’s event, when I plan to get there early so I can try out the different cuisines offered at the country booths, see some of the entertainment, buy some tickets for the raffle, score some cheese from France, wine and Sambuca from Italy, and maybe a little tea from China for the house.

Of course, I could have done that this year if I hadn’t been blazing through there like some sort of holiday shopping demon. I was just so overwhelmed by all the choices. Neat stuff from 50 different countries (art from Thailand, scarves from Indonesia, candy from Turkey, silk pillows from India) . . and during the last hour they cut prices like crazy.

I’d planned on picking up some Christmas gifts there in time to send back to the States before the holidays (Family, some of the things in the picture are going to look awfully familiar . . .). I was pretty aggressive. Let’s just say my new nickname is “I’ll take two…er, four, OK, fine, six…”

So I hope the next time I see a lot of the women from SIWA they don’t get that look in their eye like, ‘Back away, back away slooowly…’ Either that, or ask me to send their kid to college.

You can click on the picture to see the descriptions of some of what I took home.