A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story of Christmas, is being performed at the Alley Theater through December 26th. The original story is by Charles Dickens, but this version is adapted and directed by Stephen Rayne. More than 800 lucky students kicked off the holiday season in holiday style on November 22, for the Alley’s annual Snow Day. The students arrived to find 13,000 pounds of snow on the front steps of the Alley. Ten teams worked tirelessly to build a snowman that would win their school a poster autographed by the cast. A panel of representatives of the Alley’s corporate sponsors served as judges and awarded prizes to the following schools: Upward Bound, Williams Elementary, Splendora Junior High and St. Mark's Lutheran School. Tickets to the Alley's spectacular production of A Christmas Carol are selling quickly. Patrons who purchase tickets online to performances before December 5 are automatically registered to win a $200 Alley gift certificate. www.alleytheatre.org.

On Saturday, December 4, 2004 at 6:00PM, Blue Moon Cinemas will show the first of a three-movie series at Market Square in downtown Houston. The first movie is Raiders of the Lost Ark. The complete movie schedule can be found at www.bmcinemas.com. Blue Moon Cinemas uses a mobile 50 x 30-foot inflatable screen along with state of the art audio and visual equipment. Dress warmly, bring your popcorn, a lawn chair and hot cocoa and make plans to come to this free event sponsored by Minnette Boesel Properties & Wayne Productions. It sounds like fun and looking at Harrison Ford for two hours doesn’t sound too bad either.

Also, on the 4th, why not plan to "get your art on" at the Yale Street Arts Market in the Heights before you hit the movie in Market Square? The Yale Street Arts Market is an open-air fine arts market located in the Historic Houston Heights. The market was founded in March of this year, by local artists Mitch and Carolyn Cohen, as a means to give Houston artists an affordable alternative to sell their work. The market hosts about 40 artists of all mediums along with local entertainment, food and drink. The November Yale Street Arts Market had so many dogs visiting with their art-patron human companions, that market organizers invited the S.P.C.A. and pet psychic Myra Logan to join them for the December 4th market. Stop by the S.P.C.A. information booth or bring your pet or a photograph to Myra Logan's booth for an intuitive reading. The market hours are 9AM-5PM, with Sunday as a rain date. The monthly market takes place at 210 West 21st Street, which is a half of a block off Yale, behind Kaplan's Ben Hur. Admission is free and parking is available in the Kaplan's lot. For more information visit www.YaleStreetMarket.com or call 713-802-1213.

A great holiday event that benefits animals is the annual "Home for the Holidays Open House" sponsored by Citizens for Animal Protection (CAP), on Saturday and Sunday, December 4th and 5th from 1PM-5PM. The Pet Food Drive and Open House will be held at the CAP Shelter, 11925 Katy Freeway. There will be many adorable animal companions ready for adoption in hopes they will become a loving person’s pet and have a "Home for the Holidays." Citizens are asked to bring canned food for cats, dogs, puppies and kittens to share with the orphaned animals rescued and cared for by CAP. Since CAP’s inception in 1972, they have sheltered and cared for over 300,000 dogs, cats and other small animals.

Here’s a change in plans if you were planning to attend the "All I want for Christmas is ROCK" party formerly scheduled for Thursday, December 9th. The new date is Thursday December 16th beginning at 6PM at Slainte and then it will move upstairs to Ruby Room at 9PM. For details, visit www.rockhouston.com. This party is dedicated to efforts to bring back KLOL radio station, and will feature $1.75 well drinks, domestic draft beer and house wine all night long. The Ruby Room is above Slainte Irish Pub at 509 Main. Bring all of your friends. If you need something to do on the 9th, since the event date was changed, meet me at the Emerging Leaders Happy Hour Mixer at 6 Degrees Lounge at 911 Franklin from 5:30-8:00PM Emerging Leaders Members will receive their first drink FREE. Feel free to bring friends, co-workers, relatives, clients, etc. This event is FREE and open to the public. Questions? Call Vanessa McCalla, with the Downtown Houston Alliance at 713.658.8938.

The holiday season is fast approaching and perhaps some of you will be booking your travel at the last minute. Several major airlines just lowered the advance purchase requirements and lifted Saturday night stay requirements for travel, on less popular days. Travelers can still book deals for the Christmas season, if they are willing to travel on the less-booked days. About 37.2 million people will travel this holiday and will book their own travel over the internet. Visit www.supercoopertravel.com, the instant you finish reading this newsletter, to search for those last minute deals. You will be able to book your car and hotel all within the same website.

Sportsmonkey’s Texans Football Outing is on December 12th and the crew is going to see the Houston Texans battle it out with the Indianapolis Colts. For only $98 you get all this: 50 yard line upper deck ticket to the game, breakfast at Griff's starting at 9:00AM, bus transportation to and from Griff's, free beer on the way to and from the game, free Sportsmonkey Glass, incredible Sportsmonkey Glass drink specials after the game at Griff's. Drink Specials are $1.50 domestic draft in your Sportsmonkey Glass (glasses available at Griff's), $2 well drinks. $25 will get you the free breakfast, beer, and ride to and from the game, if you have your own game tickets, but want to tag along. Email info@sportsmonkey.com for this option. Or you can just meet the gang at Griff's after the game to party!

Downtown nightlife has a new nightclub destination. Club Mantra is open weekends and is located on the renovated second floor at 711 Main, above Mantra Restaurant. Club Mantra will feature a DJ, several bars, a dance floor and outside seating on a large balcony overlooking Main Street. A new staircase has been built near the front of the restaurant for access to Club Mantra. The club will be open every Friday and Saturday night from 9:00PM until 2:00AM throughout the December. The club is available for private parties Sundays through Thursdays and it will be open to the public on more nights than just weekend nights, after the holidays. Mantra Restaurant has already added excitement to Downtown’s vibrant dining scene. I love their Turkish-style décor. Chef Michael Potowski has created a fusion restaurant the way fusion was meant to be. A variety of his dishes will be available in smaller portions in the new nightclub, too. Mantra Restaurant is open for dinner Monday through Saturday and they have my favorite food, sushi. Call 713-225-3500 for information and reservations.

For those of you ladies who prefer chicks, rather than, ummmm, men (you thought I was going to say something naughty that rhymes with chicks, didn’t you?) Throb Parties are for you. On Friday nights, one of the city’s best-known female DJs, Rocky B., plays club, hip hop and Latin grooves at Bartini, a club where the crowd is a mixture of both gay and straight patrons. Bartini is at 1318 Westheimer and cover charge on Friday nights is $5 for 18-20 and $3 for 21 and up. Dollar domestics and $2 well drinks until midnight add some excitement to the night. Even Sheryl Swoopes has stopped by Bartini on a Friday for one of these parties. If you visit www.throbparties.info, you can sign up to be receive email invitations to Throb Parties and a weekly newsletter that provides information about nightclubs and events and the latest in music and fashion news in Houston’s Lesbian Community.

I recently attended an Engagement/Bachelor and Bachelorette Party for Jen and Nathan (congratulations, you two!) The event was at one of my favorite clubs, the Ruby Room (509 Main.) Catering was from both Slainte Irish Pub (downstairs from the Ruby Room) and Dacono’s Deli located at 1141 E 11th Street in the Heights. All of the food was scrumptious, and the deli’s catering included Salmon Canapés, mini sandwiches, delectable desserts and a mouth-watering spinach dip, to name a few. For party tray ideas, call Dacono’s at 713-869-9141.

Cool Guest DJs are coming to Drink Houston. Drink is in the Marq*E Entertainment Center at I-10 and Silber Road. Johnny J will step up to the turntables on Sunday, December 5th and Blake Davidson will be spinning on December 12th. Here’s an interesting fact, Blake and I went to high school together, decades ago. Doors open at 9:00 on Sundays at Drink and they feature $2 u-call-its all night long. 19 and up are welcome. For further 411, visit www.drinkhouston.com.

I got some great feedback about the new www.houstonqueenofclubs.com website from Andrea, who is Corporate Sales Manager at the Houstonian Hotel, Club and Spa. She sent me an email that said "This site is so fabulous! Why has it been so long since something like this has been done for Houston!!??? I will make sure to email this to all of my girlfriends!!" Wow, that really made my day. I love writing this, but it’s even more important that people love reading it.