Christmas Traditions

     Saturday, for the first time in many, many years, we went to St. Charles, MO to get in the spirit of Christmas. St. Charles is just outside of St. Louis and a quaint town with a beautiful Historic District full of shops, restaurants and brick streets. We hadn't been since our children were young, so with the weather perfect (it was 60 degrees) and a day with no plans, we took off early to enjoy Christmas Traditions in St. Charles.

Most of the shops were in buildings like the one above.

Everything was decked out beautifully for Chistmas.

We stopped for a look at the old mill.

A blacksmith was busy at work.

     Chestnuts were roasting over an open fire. The lovely lady in the cape was one of the "flower girls". She walked through town with her flower basket. She handed me "her card" which you could see children collecting from all of the characters.

I loved this Santa.

     This is the "Sweet Tooth Fairy". Until this year, for the past 5 years, she (Laura Coppinger) has been hired by the city to be the Sugar Plum Fairy. She was evidently one of the most popular and well-loved characters. According to news reports, Coppinger's problems began when she was sent by the city to take a drug test. After she filled a cup with her sample, she flushed the toilet, which is against the regulations. She said she used a curse word after she was told she would need to provide another sample. According to the Rules of Conduct, "Christmas Characters don't know naughty words" so she was not allowed to be the Sugar Plum Fairy this year. Two of the businesses, a candy shop and a cookie shop, hired her to be the Sweet Tooth Fairy instead as people were so upset about her not being the Sugar Plum Fairy. She was darling and human. How silly.

     It was a wonderful day. It was also very crowded. I was surprised at how many were there with small children in strollers. The brick streets and sidewalks, stores with steps and many businesses with signs that said "no strollers" made this seem like an impossible task in my opinion. Some of the stores were so crowded that we couldn't get in the door. So, my suggestion if you live anywhere near St. Charles, take time to visit. It is wonderful. I also suggest that this is one place you don't want to take a stroller.

     I also had to tell you about my cupcake. The picture above is from the website of Jilly's Cupcake Bar. I didn't take a picture of mine because I ate it too fast. Mine was actually better looking that this one, the frosting covered the entire top and it was huge. This is called the Bee Sting. It is vanilla cake with honey lemon curd filling and topped with lemon cream cheese, toasted almonds and a lemon candy dust. The top had a piece of white chocolate that looked like honeycomb. Jilly's has several locations in St. Louis and also had them for sale at a shop in St. Charles. Jilly's won Cupcake Wars on the Food Network and I certainly understand why. My cupcake was over $6 and worth every penny! Take a look at the Jilly's website, you won't believe these flavors!