Yea. I even get nostalgic about trips to the grocery store.
#25 of the 31 Things I Love About Christmas: The Trip To Wegmans
Yea. I get warm and fuzzy about grocery store excursions. Usually, December 23 we would set out on our massive Christmas shopping trip. Depending on whether or not we had off from school would decide when we went. If we had off the 23rd we would go in the morning…on the other hand sometimes we would wait til after dinner so to avoid the crazies. If the 23rd was a Friday, then we would most certainly go at night.
And where would this trip start you ask? Anyone from the Rochester, Buffalo, Syracuse area knows all holiday trips called for a visit with Uncle Danny.
That’s right. Wegmans (Ridge-Culver location).
*Warning: This entry is gonna be a bit of a train wreck, grammatically and in terms of sentence structure, which is generally how I talk anyways. Imagine if you asked me what we got on these trips. These would be my answer
The Toys R Us of grocery stores. I can still see the soft pink/orange glow of "Wegmans: Food Pharmacy" on the brown awning, the parking lot lights shining bright, the glow of Ridge Culver Plaza across the street on our left, carts all over the parking lot and the gray/black slush of the parking lot. The snow falling softly in the night. Sometimes my sister would accompany us on these excursions (often a magazine of some sort would serve as reward for our efforts).
Didn’t really pick up much in the bread department, if anything we would grab rolls for the sausage. Yea, you read that right, sausage for Christmas (much more on that later). Onto the fruits and vegetables for tangerines, oranges and maybe apples, all essential items for salad. Gotta make sure to pick up the anise. Plus lemons for the baccala and limes to be cut in wedges for the drinks that no one ever made, despite our little bar of sorts that was trotted out for each holiday and gathering, always set up on the counter to the right of the kitchen sink.
And potatoes. Can’t have Christmas without potatoes. Usually these would be little salt potatoes, or they would be chopped and mixed with a French onion mix (Lipton) or Hidden Valley Ranch powder. Then it was onto the Diamond Mixed Nuts. Sometimes we would buy it by the pound, other times we would get the pre-packaged bags. Grab the chestnuts as well, usually roasted them in the oven…never actually tried them. Usually could bypass the meat section. Lap around the outside for milk and egg nog. Really can’t have Christmas without egg nog.
Then it was onto a brief looksee at the Christmas cookies. Always Archway, especially the Cashew nougats and gingerbread men. As well as the generic holiday shapes cookies with sprinkles on them, and any other cookies that seemed like a good idea. Swing by the chips and pretzels to grab some snack type stuff if needed. Then onto the pop section (we don’t sell soda in NY, we do have plenty of pop though) Coke or Pepsi…whatever is on sale, I’m not picky, root beer of some kind, Ginger ale (Schweppes or Seagram's) regular, grape and raspberry…trow ‘em all in the cart..they don’t like it they don’t gotta drink). It should be noted that pre-2000 we hardly ever bought 2-liters. We bought all our pop by the glass bottle at Aman’s Farm Market in Irondequoit, right next to Eastridge HS. It was bottled by Fizz, a local company. Once they stopped carrying them, we joined the century and bought it plastic.
Anyone remember the Pepsi Holiday Spice? Holy Cow. Heaven in a can. I still got a empty bottle I use as holiday décor, right next to two different empty boxes of Christmas Cap N’ Crunch. I hope each year they bring it back. Nothing yet, but for the closest thing possible, throw back some Pepsi (I don’t know if Coca Cola would have the same effect) and have a bite of gingerbread cookie and you’ll have a good idea of the goodness this stuff was.
Then it was on through the various aisles for any additional items like salad dressing, croutons, ketchup/mustard/relish (dill only…sweet relish is horrid) for the sausage, pickle spears (because who doesn’t like pickles?) and other very random items that may be needed.
By this point we generally had everything we need and god knows we had a lot of things we didn’t need. And a shopping cart stuffed to the gills, kinda embarrassing by the time we got done. Then occasionally it was onto the Dollar Store and/or Tops (Friendly Markets) for paper plates, cups, silverware and anything we couldn’t get at Wegmans or were cheaper elsewhere, to be completely honest.
Then to (this sometimes we waited til the day of Christmas eve to go) Rubino’s or Palermo’s. Uffa! Che bella negoz’!
It was here we would pick up our Italian treats. And what treats. Maria Sant’!
Well, they weren’t all treats in the traditional sense, more like necessities as far as we were concerned. Soppressata, salami, pepperoni, provolone, olives and any other Italian cookies that jumped into our basket, we would also pick up the rolls needed for the Christmas sausage. Don’t judge. The headliner at our Christmas and New Year’s Eve dinner was homemade Italian sausage and grandpa’s baccala. Again, more on that later.
These shopping trips were a bonding experience of sorts and usually a lot of fun. Wegmans would be decorated in full bombastic glory and it was generally a happy feeling. Christmas time again and here we are shopping for the holidays. Then to haul all the stuff into the house, which no one ever felt like doing. Upon completion we would realize we may have forgotten an item or two and it would be back to the store tomorrow.
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