Drove down to Roanoke with Rima yesterday afternoon. She had gotten us tickets to the performance of the Nutcracker at their performance theatre there. Good seats from which to watch a fun little performance. Nearly all the main dancers and performers were high school age or younger. It added a new twist for me to watch which was very pleasurable. Overall the level of dancing was quite high, but there were enough minor glitches in it to keep it interesting. I particularly liked two scenes where 6 young boys dressed as reindeer pulled a sleigh with the Prince and Clara onto the stage and then proceeded to get run over by their own sled. No one was injured, but it was really cute just the same.

    We drove over to a local restraurant Rima knew of after the performance. Called 'Local Roots', it specialized in creating dishes featuring locally grown or produced ingredients. On Sunday they serve a limited menu and they serve it family style. So we ended up with two entrees between us, a really yummy pasta dish with an amazing winter squash based sauce on it, as well as what they were calling 'Not your mothers regular meatloaf'. That description was very true, as mom never made anything that tasted like this. I wouldn't of actually called it meatloaf, but it was made in a similar fashion. Using ground beef, buffalo and pork they spiced it up in some manner that had you wanting more, and then set it all on some cooked greens, perhaps chard or collard, I'm not really sure. Add to the meal these amazing 'home fried potatoes' and a dish of 'baked summer squash' and you had a meal fit for royalty. It was all very yummy!

    Today I'm off to Blacksburg and Christiansburg for some shopping. Will need to hit Home Depot, Lowes and possibly Tractor Supply as well as the grocery store before I'm all done. Lucky for me it looks like it will be a dry day and even slightly warmer, if you call barely above freezing warmer. Gotta go now.