By Shannon Williams
I have to confess, that I am a BAG LADY! I love bags of every shape and size and have a hard time parting with any type of a bag, including a plain brown grocery bag. They are hard to come by these days and there are so many uses for them. Now, by bags, I mean tote bags, purses, canvas bags, shopping bags of every shape and size. I really have a hard time not buying any more and if they are given to me as part of a purchase, well it was meant to be!

I was really put to the test recently and I failed! I have lived in this area for almost 10 years and each and every year, I say I am going to the big Nutcracker Market in Houston, and each year something comes up and I don’t go. Well, this year, I was going to go, no matter what. I put in my request for time off, as we wanted to go on Thursday, hoping to beat some of the crowd. What started off as two of us going ended up with four. If I am going to have fun, I want everyone to go with me and enjoy the good time.

I have read with delight each year, Georgia’s account and the adventures that she has going to Nutcracker, but I was totally unprepared for this event. Now, I did try to prepare, I got a good night’s sleep, I stashed some cash and knew how much money was in my bank account so I would not overspend (not that it helped). I had on my best walking shoes and had my patches on my knees to make sure I could walk all I wanted to without pain. Some of my shopping mates, had really prepared and looked at all the different vendors online and had some booths that they wanted to make sure they got to. I just wanted to take it all in, so I did not do any prior research. Two of us had never been before and two were old pro’s but had not been in several years. Now, the two newbies are also just old West Texas Broads, a term we hold dear and implies many things, one of which is we know how to shop and how to shop all day long.

For years, I have attended a big conference which also has a huge trade show. The conference can only be held in a few cities, as the trade show is so big, not many convention centers can hold it. The conference is a week long so I usually take about three days to cover the whole trade show, they have great freebies and most booths have a drawing for really neat prizes, as they want your email address. I won an iPod years ago at one of the shows. I also have found many vendors that I still use today at this trade show. So, I was used to large shopping opportunities. The bags are also flowing and I often return with 20 or more bags. So, I thought, I could handle the Nutcracker Market … but I was wrong.

I know they had some rules about what you could take in, so I did not take a bag for my goodies, and carried a small purse, so I would have my hands free and could carry more. As we entered, they gave us a nice size plastic shopping bag with lots of ads on it, so far so good, one bag already. As we started to shop, I noticed these bags, now they were really neat. First of all, they were canvas with strong and long handles. They were super big (22 x 18), and wonderful Christmas patterns of every different type. I picked one up and then saw another one which had pink, my favorites color and hard to find much for Christmas in pink. Well, I could not decide, but got the pink one. The line to check out was super long and by the time I got to the front of the line, I had picked up several more of the bags, as they were cheap ($18) and knew they would make great gifts for several people of my list. I quickly filled them up with more purchases, my daughter-in-law and son love to deck the halls as much as I do, so I often will buy two of an item and send one to them. I had gone there with a list of gifts for people I needed to get gifts for, but in the end, I was the big winner and got stuff for me too!

Each and every booth I looked at just had the best stuff, I have to say there were not booths with junk. Some had very high dollar items and some had great stuff at good prices. I filled up my two bags in no time. I headed back to check my bags, so I could fill up another one. I did manage to get some gifts and some Christmas decorations that I did not need, but just could not pass up, so will have to retire some of my older decorations. When it was all said and done, my bags were my favorite items, so much so that I decided I needed a few more for gifts and ordered more online! I took my time after we got home and really looked at the program and realized I had missed some booths that I would have loved. My apple watch told me I walked 3 miles. It was just fun in so many ways, I already have the dates marked for next year. I will be a pro by then and will go online and make sure I hit all the booths I might have missed. I have started to package up the bags to mail out, so they can be used as my friends attending Holiday gatherings with a bag of goodies! I have attached a picture, so you can all see just what a neat bag it is! So, the bag lady continues to gather more bags, I have often joked that when I die, I will have enough bags to give everyone a bag at the funeral, but I guess not everyone loves bags like I do.

[SW: Nov-22-2022]