Christmas with the Alpacas

Earlier this week I was at RSVP on Forest Avenue and my eyes caught a flyer for Christmas with Alpacas at Estabrook's, a greenhouse 3 towns up. I was reminded of an Alpaca Fair I attended several years back at the Portland Expo, there I met a lot of cool people and it was fun.

When I picked Jimmy up at school on Friday I couldn't help but notice that his hands were freezing. It was time for mittens, you bad mommy!

Jimmy's been cranky all week. This morning I thought of the Alpaca Show and how he might enjoy a pair of soft fiber mittens. Fully expecting a screechy, high-toned "NO!!!!" I was caught by surprise with an enthusiastic nod when I suggested Christmas with Alpacas. We were on our way.

Estabrook's must have done some heavy advertising, there were parking issues and guys directing traffic. It was a lot of fanfare for, just a handful of alpacas. Oh well.

Inside one of the greenhouses was a craft fair, hurrah! Alpaca mittens, here we come.



The items were beautiful, and always pricey. I was reduced to peering distantly for small mittens, the vendors were very aggressive (but not as aggressive as the roaming Santa outside. No Santa! He does not want to hold your pinky! Back off!!!)

At one end we found a table of free cookies, hot cider, cocoa, and a man scraping a steaming white substance from a chaffing dish into another bucket, griping about how he thought he was going to be ladling chili and oatmeal for guests, and not doing this (whatever that was.) Jimmy chose an M&M cookie.


M&M Alpaca Crackah

At the other end was a really nice craft table for kids, Jimmy sat down at once but it took some cajoling to get him to do the crafts.



I tried a few different seats and stations, but ultimately he was most interested in the cookie.


Alpaca Slackah

Behind us there were women spinning alpaca yarn.



And a baby alpaca pen.



And I never distantly peered a set of children's alpaca mittens, not that I would have been able to afford them. Oh well!

Inside the main building were some great Christmas trees!

And on the way out we caught one last glimpse of the alpacas.



All in all, it was....moderate! Malpaca Christmas!