Southern Christmas Show

It’s that time of year again. Can you believe it’s already almost Thanksgiving? I mean, wasn’t I just at the beach soaking up the sun a month ago? 

It’s also the time of year where everyone is getting ready for Christmas. Through the years, people have started running Thanksgiving and Christmas all together. We used to never start decorating for Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving eve marked the beginning of Christmas. Daddy would always take us uptown to see the lights as it was the first night they would light up the town. 

Well, I will admit, I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping and haven't even gotten the Christmas stuff down from the attic. But in tradition, I will not light my tree until after Thanksgiving. 

Speaking of tradition, I think me and my daughter have started a new one. We both have always wanted to go to the Southern Christmas Show that goes on every year in Charlotte, NC. It is always a big deal and all the women are always raving about it. My daughter has asked me several years if I want to go but I never wanted to fight the crowd on weekends and the job I always had would not allow me anytime off unless it was family vacation or I was bleeding from my eye balls. I missed out on it.

Well, with the job I have now, I get to build up time off. It equals to about a day a month. I have several hours accumulated. I do not need permission to get off a day because it’s my time that was earned. I was sitting at my desk and thought about it. Then I called up my daughter and asked her to take a day off so we can go to the Christmas Show. She was all for it and by the end of the day, we had a plan. 

The Southern Christmas Show is an event at the convention center. There are hundreds of vendors, shops and crafts. Everywhere is decorated like Christmas and it just puts you in the Christmas mood. We had to wait an hour in traffic to get in and it took 4 hours to go through all the shops. We had a good time. We did not buy much because the prices were high on a lot of things, but I did buy a few little things that I did not need, but thought they were unique. 

I came home with a pair of earrings, bottle of wine, a cinnamon mouse, key chain and a cow bone. She came home with a key chain, earrings, a diamond art kit and a block of fudge. Yea, we are not big spenders. 

I want to show you the little cinnamon mouse. 

I thought it was so cute. It is made out of Cinnamon sticks and by placing it somewhere in your home, it will smell the room up like cinnamon. Ok we all need one of these, right? 

And the cow bone. I had ya there didn’t I?

It is a hair pin made from a cow bone. There was an African woman that made these for sale. Each one was different and imperfect.  I love it. I can also use it as a weapon if I need to. 

We have already talked about going back again next year. Now that we know what it’s all about, we can prepare our wallets and have some gifting ideas for friends. 

Do you have any traditions with family or friends? 

Moji Teahouse

Have you ever had Mochi ice cream? I have had Mochi ice cream before and love it. You can actually purchase Mochi Ice Cream at the groceries stores. It’s basically balls of ice cream wrapped in a chewy rice dough and frozen. You can eat it with your fingers. 

Well, there is a place I have been wanting to try called Moji TeaHouse. They make Mochi doughnuts. I had a Saturday free and figured this would be a good time to visit so I called up my daughter.  She had been wanting to try it too, so she looked up the directions. It just so happened to be right next to the outlets. So we made plans to meet at the Charlotte Premium Outlets first to do a little shopping and then headed to Moji Teahouse. It was a small little place with limited flavors of Mochi doughnuts.

Mochi Doughnuts are a cross between traditional doughnuts and Japanese mochi. Again, mochi a chewy rice dough. Mochi Doughnuts are deep fried then covered with an assortment of flavors. 

Moji Teahouse also serves bubble teas which is another thing I like. I purchased the pink one for breast cancer awareness. It was a sweet milk tea with raspberries and came in a cute can inspired signature cup. 

Bubble tea is a milk tea with boba. Boba is made from tapioca pears or cassava starch. It’s a perfect Tiawanese drink. 

What are my thoughts on the doughnuts? 

Not what I expected. I thought they would be filled with something but they were not. They were not sweet either. The texture was chewy and flavorless. I probably will never want them again but I just had give them a try.

As far as the bubble tea. It was really good. My daughter got a caramel flavored one and it was even better.