Santa Fe al la Todos Santos

 Sundaye Sweet Sundaye.....

  To continue our Santa Fe weekend, we started bright and early with last day of Bead Fest~ just like their mother, my children's favorite booth was the Kabba Brothers~( you can see the hanks of antique micro beads to the left of the snake beads), Josh bought a strand of the larger ones on the left,  and after wearing them to school all this past week, he is the envy of all his friends...

 Along side the Plaza in front of the Palace of the Governors Native American Indians sell their hand made treasures~ and when I say treasures~ I mean treasures! To be able to lay one's blanket out, the sellers must be/ have certified Native American made goods, and have been hand picked from a slew of contenders to sell there that day~ so each day you will find something different.  It is a great Honor to be able to sell there, and I felt, an ever greater honor to be in the presence of such great and talented people.

 We walked thru so many of the shops~ I wont even get into the 2,000.00 fur coat Emma wanted to try on.....a real favorite of the children was "Mama's Minerals". We have arrowheads and fossils on our property, so I knew the children would like this store when Janice took me in it on Saturday~ but they absolutely were in awe~ we probably spent over an hour in here, and even then I was nearly dragging them out....

  See the look on Josh's face~ every two seconds he was gasping and saying "WOW~ look at THIS...WOW~ look at THAT!"

  My babes are getting so big~ don't know where the time has gone. Don't you love the street side? As far down as you can see, is this wonderful long covered corridor, and every now and then a doorway to break up the solid adobe

 Here it is from across the street, a few doors down. It reminds me of a plain brown paper wrapped package....so plain on the outside, but holding some wonderful surprise inside!

 Taking a left thru one of those plain doors, one is transported into a beautiful hidden courtyard, or Plaza~ around which there are fabulous fabulous shops! Who knew Willy Wonka lived in Santa Fe...and went by the name of Hayward Simoneaux, the owner of Todos Santos!

  What is Todos Santos? The most wonderful little hole in the wall Chocolate shop ever!

  Just looking at the door, one cant really tell its a candy shop...but it looks Santa Fe Festive, and kind of reminds me of a fancy pinata~ a little peek beyond the door and the most marvelous surprises await you!

  He carries chocolates and candies from around the world~ and makes his own fantastic gourmet confections~

  everything is wrapped so pretty~ its just the most fabulous place!

 When I went with Janice I brought home these sweeties~ the chocolate sardines a gift to the children from her~ the other two I admit I bought without knowing what was inside them~ you know how I love a pretty package!

  The green paper wrapped metal tea canister was full of chocolate covered orange peel (oh my~ must. get. again.)...this is what was in the little box. We had to have a lottery and draw names to see who got what as no one could decide~ Josh got the mushroom that was filled with caramel in the stem, with a hard toffee cap...Tressa got the peanut butter egg with real edible gold leaf....Pip got the little chocolate nest and Emma drew the coveted bunny~ it was so cute she didn't want to eat it at first....he didn't last long after the first nibble tho.  Husband got the silver Jordan almond in the center.

 Of coarse Josh had to bring home something from Mama's Minerals~ its a Selenite Tower~ I think it looks like the Cryptonite from planet Crypton in the original Superman movie!

What a wonderful day we had~ can't wait to go back again and visit the Museums...and shops of coarse!  I love this picture...some would say they look wore out...but in our family, this is exactly what is looks like to be "Poop Tucker'd" as Pip says!