{"id":245623,"date":"2012-12-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-07T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/opening-doors-to-the-holiday-spirit\/"},"modified":"2012-12-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-07T08:00:00","slug":"opening-doors-to-the-holiday-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/opening-doors-to-the-holiday-spirit\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening doors to the holiday spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Park walkabout was \u2018perfect way\u2019 to start the season<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Cynthia Robertson | Reportero SDUN<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was crowded on the evening of Saturday, Dec. 1 in the heart of South Park, but nobody minded. In fact, it was \u201cthe more, the merrier\u201d at the neighborhood\u2019s winter walkabout, called \u201cTwinkle, Twinkle, Mix and Mingle.\u201d The evening is a holiday tradition that many locals look forward to for the community, the food and the shopping.<\/p>\n

\"Opening
Andrea Lopez and her Golden Retriever Spooner took in the festivities in South Park. (Photo by Cynthia Robertson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rain stayed away, revealing a waning moon and cloud streaks appearing like snow puffs across the sky. By 6 p.m., when the walkabout started officially, there were already happy groups of people streaming from the trolleys into The Grove and Rebecca\u2019s Coffee House, both near 30th and Juniper streets.<\/p>\n

Inside The Grove, a small orchestra played \u201cAngels We have Heard On High\u201d while customers perused books, yarns, crafts and ornaments. Everyone carried little paper cups of hot apple cider poured by Ellae Elinwood, a neighborhood resident volunteering for the evening.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m an old friend of Anne, one of the owners at The Grove,\u201d Elinwood said. \u201cI love it here at The Grove. I never have to go anywhere else to do my shopping.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicole Ochoa and her son thanked Elinwood for their cider. The Ochoas are relatively new residents of South Park, having moved from Allied Gardens last summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the feel of an event like this,\u201d Ochoa said. \u201cI grew up in Brooklyn, so I never was one for the suburbs.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a far corner of The Grove was Mission Hills resident Debbie Koontz, all smiles as she gazed at the baubles and doo-dads. \u201cI go to all the walkabouts. I like the holiday one because it gets me into the holiday spirit. It\u2019s certainly more fun than going to the mall,\u201d she said. \u201cI never get bored because there\u2019s always something different to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bad Madge, the vintage shop at 2205 Fern St. that Koontz raved about, had droves of people dropping in. Nearly everyone stopped to admire the set of vintage TV trays set up outside the shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach of the trays have a different scene painted on them,\u201d said Vaughn Avakian, a buyer for the store. \u201cI found the trays at an estate sale in East County.\u201d<\/p>\n

At one point, Avakian offered to take the half-empty cup of white wine from a customer as she was leaving the store. Bad Madge offered drinks for the event, but they could not be taken outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can call me a greeter, a cup collector, bouncer [and] spiritual advisor,\u201d Avakian said, joking. But what Avakian did best was answer questions the customers had about the eclectic collection of items in the shop.<\/p>\n

For tasty things, most people were talking about Eclipse Chocolat, which will be officially setting up shop in January at the intersection of Fern and Ivy streets. For the walkabout evening, the shop had a booth set up with samples of their chocolate bars and truffles. The crowds never let up clamoring for a taste, and owner Will Gustwiller encouraged the eager eaters to sign a raffle ticket for a chance to win a \u201clifetime supply of chocolate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Back at the corner of 30th and Juniper streets, Caf\u00e9 Madeleine had the Christmas spirit in full swing. A group of carol singers in old-time costume sang \u201cSilent Night,\u201d while people dined on crepes outdoors at little tables. The air was warm and rich with the scent of fresh crepes prepared by Jesse Mateos.<\/p>\n

Mateos had to keep asking Marie Ricci, the manager of Caf\u00e9 Madeleine, for more mushrooms. \u201cHands down, the most popular crepe of the evening is the Mushroom Crepe,\u201d Mateos said, calling himself an aspiring chef.<\/p>\n

Performing artist Angelique enchanted the children with her graceful gestures to lovely tunes, and Andrea Lopez stood nearby, crepe in hand, with her Golden Retriever named Spooner. The dog sweetly nosed everyone that nudged up beside him, making toddlers giggle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to be here,\u201d Lopez said. \u201cI just got off work at the First Hair Salon down the street. This is a perfect way to start the season off. Spooner likes it, too. He\u2019s excited tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

The South Park Business Group organized the holiday walkabout, with support from the City of San Diego\u2019s Small Business Enhancement Program. Ed Landsberg Realtor, Culinary Creative, Grant\u2019s Marketplace and Andrea Frank Realtor sponsored free trolley service.<\/p>\n

The walkabouts are quarterly events, with the next one taking place March 23, 2013. For more information, visit southparkscene.com or call 619-200-4269.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Park walkabout was \u2018perfect way\u2019 to start the season By Cynthia Robertson | SDUN Reporter It was crowded on the evening of Saturday, Dec. 1 in the heart of South Park, but nobody minded. In fact, it was \u201cthe more, the merrier\u201d at the neighborhood\u2019s winter walkabout, called \u201cTwinkle, Twinkle, Mix and Mingle.\u201d The […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Opening doors to the holiday spirit","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}