The Southern Christmas Show!

Yesterday was a special day.  My husband and I celebrated 9 years of wedded bliss!  I can’t believe that 9 years have passed since our wedding day!

And… how sad is this… we didn’t even see each other!  (Well, not much anyway… we had about an hour and a half together.)

My friends and I like to hit the Southern Christmas Show in Charlotte each year, and this was the ONLY day we could all agree to go.  So… Ryan and I are going to celebrate our anniversary this weekend instead!

Have you ever been to the Southern Christmas Show?  If you are like me and LOVE a chance to get into the holiday spirit, you must go.  Angie, Mandy, and I got on the road yesterday as soon as we could and headed to the Queen City!

As soon as you walk in the door, there are beautiful holiday displays, holiday songs playing, and all kinds of wonderful smells. 

The first place we went was to the wine tastings.  Now, don’t judge.  It’s literally right by the entrance.  It’s not that we TRIED to go there first.

We went to the Duplin Winery booth.  I usually totally ignore this wine, because I don’t like sweet wine at all.  For those who don’t know, Duplin is a winery close to Wilmington, NC, and they make Muscadine wines.  There are LOADS of people out there who love it.  So yesterday I asked if they had any wines that weren’t sweet.  I tasted their Burgundy, and I actually really liked it.  It’s not at ALL the kind of wine that I usually like.  It’s dry, yet it tastes like Muscadines… It’s very light and fruity!  I think this would be a great summertime red wine.  I don’t think I would drink this all the time, but I actually bought a bottle to take home.

We saw all kinds of cute gift ideas… but we did more tasting than shopping!  

I tasted all kinds of goodies….

Some delicious bread from Elaine’s Slices of Heaven…

This was actually some of the zucchini bread, which was wonderful, but I ended up getting the cranberry bread.  It was delicious!  It has this amazing icing on it, and it is so moist!  This bread has oranges, cranberries, walnuts… it is perfect for the holidays. 

If you are interested in looking at all the different flavors, take a look at their web site: http://www.slicesofheaven.com/ .  They also do amazing gift baskets, too.  You can order online, but there are also places you can buy it in Charlotte. 

Take a look at this fudge display…

I tasted several yummy kinds, such as Cheerwine fudge, Fudge with jalapenos, and Raspberry Cheesecake fudge. 

I took some of the raspberry cheesecake flavor home with me. 

There were also soup samples…

ciders and coffees…

dips and spreads...

Just an aside... this dip was called "Crack."  Actually, it was "Cajun Candy," but the salesperson said it was also known as Crack because it's so addictive.  His sales technique was to call out, "Wanna try some crack?" to everyone who passed by his booth.  Amazingly... it worked really well.  The booth was flooded with people.  I didn't bring any "Crack" home with me, though!

And there was so much more!  Here's a peek at the goodies I brought home...

If you’d like to go, the show lasts a few more days.  You can visit the web site for more information about the Southern Christmas Show.  Make sure to wear comfortable shoes!  This show is HUGE!!!

When I got home, hubby and I enjoyed some wine and fudge and toasted to the next 9 years!  Next year’s a biggie for us… wonder where we should go for our 10^th anniversary???