Southern Christmas Show 2008!!!

Well, the Southern Christmas Show is here again! I can't believe how fast the year comes to an end! This is around our 14th year participating in the Southern Christmas Show. It started on Wednesday and continues until next Sunday. Since I am in college now I can't go to the show like I used to. When I was a kid I was there everyday! It got pretty tiring, but it was always the highlight of our year! It would definitely get you in the Christmas spirit. (Actually it had a strange way of making you tired of Christmas before it even came...which is the only bad thing about the show.)
The best part about the show is the other exhibitors! Most of the exhibitors have been doing the show for years as well. So every November it's like we have a two week family reunion! lol We have gotten to know them so well over the years. It's funny how they see us grow up from little kids. I was 6 years old when we started doing the show...and now I'm 20! Our friends there make the show a lot of fun! With a long show like that, things get pretty crazy! You never know what someone is thinking up next. I have so many funny stories from the Christmas show. Hmmm.....I'm trying to think of one that won't take forever to tell. One time when we were really little Micah and I were playing around on the entertainmnet stage at the end of the day. (All the customers were gone and only the exhibitors were left). We were dancing around and then when we stopped, people started clapping and we looked and all these exhinitors were standing under the stage watching us. LOL I just ran off the stage laughing, but Micah hid under the piano and cried her little heart out. :-) There are so many other hilarious stories, but it would take a book and not a blog...so I'll leave it at that.
The first night of the show is called Preview Night. The tickets are very expensive on that night and they usually have caterers come with lots of delicious foods! Exhibitors aren't supposed to get food from the caterers, but we have all decided we don't like that rule. So every year on Preview night we would take our exhibitor badges off and go hunting for food! I'm sure it's hilarious to see us standing line for food and then seeing a show worker come along and having to dart out of line and wlk off whistling or something. (All of the show workers know us, but the caterers don't). By the end of the night we would eventually find enough food for supper.
The show has a very distinctive smell. It smells like wood, paint, cinnamon, potpourri, and dust all mixed together. It is a good smell though....full of good memories!
Our booth for the past 14 years has been in Liberty Hall. The show has 3 halls with nearly one thousand exhibitors! Liberty Hall is where most of the crafters and artists have their booths. Right across from our booth is the entertainment stage. (that might sound good...but trust me...it is NOT). I can't relate the countless torturous hours spent listening to the catarwalling coming from that stage! A few of the acts have been good, but they are few and far between. I always liked when the ballets would put on a short dance. For years there was a woman named JillyBean that had a puppet ministry. She would perform several times a day. After 2 weeks of listening to it we had her whole performance memorized! I can still remember most of it after several years! :-)
We have met so many good friends through the Southern Christmas Show. Robert and Juanita Hall have been our booth neighbors for years!!! They are so much fun! Every year we have a race to see who can tear down their booth and get packed the fastest! (And every year...WE have won! haha) Mike and Brenda are another couple we have grown to know and love. Brenda Harris Tustian Kendrick is a famous watercolor artist we have been neighbors with ever since we started the show. There are so many others....Patsy Gullet, the Zimmermans, Millie and Robert Wilson, the Watkins family, Jack Mato Cardinal ( a Native American storyteller from Colorado) and others. We were always entertained by the guys taht worked in the Native American shop beside us. They were hilarious! Everynight they would had wars shooting each other with the staple guns! haha
But anyway...people come from miles around to enjoy the shopping, food, and entertainment at the Southern Christmas Show. We have looked forward to it every year and I hope we will be able to continue this Christmas tradition for years to come!