Surely I’m not the only person who gets stressed during the holidays. Work duties don’t subside while the (self-imposed) pressure mounts to get the perfect presents for my loved ones and the house decorated all pretty for the out-of-towners coming to stay. It’s enough to make you go stand in the middle of the street screaming, “Bah-Humbug!” Instead, I’m going to carve out a few minutes here and there to do something that may help me keep my sanity for the next month. One of the coolest options I’ve found is a visit to the the Spa by Whole Foods Market, the grocery giant’s first full-service spa – it’s a 7-room facility upstairs at the Preston-Forest store in Dallas, all soundproofed so I can’t hear the commotion below. With any 50-minute treatment purchase, the concierge will do my shopping downstairs at no charge. In Austin, I want to try Milk + Honey, the downtown day spa at 2nd and Colorado streets, for its Heads, Hands, and Feet massage, where the moisturizing blends supposedly wipe out fatigue while stimulating the scalp, hands, and feet. At the Fredericksburg Herb Farm spa, I want the Thai massage, which should give me better range of motion and mobility – much like yoga, but without all the work. In Houston, I’m dying to go to Sanctuary Spa on West Alabama, where the Japanese Reiki is an energy healing chi treatment. It’s not even December yet, and I think I need all of these – today.

As she looks ready to take over the universe – or at least prove, once and for all, that there’s room for more than Martha in the world of cooking, food, entertainment, and dining – the ubiquitous Rachael Ray prepares to hit two Texas cities during her coast-to-coast book-signing tour. Again, only those of you living under the biggest, most remote rocks could have possibly missed Rach, host of the syndicated TV show Rachael Ray” and the insanely popular Food Network programs 30 Minute Meals and Tasty Travels. She’s written jillions of best-selling cookbooks and has a magazine, Every Day with Rachael Ray. If you want to see her while she’s making Lone Star stops to promote her newest book, Just In Time, you’d better make those plans right now. She’ll be at the Williams-Sonoma in Southlake (near DFW Airport) from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday, December 8; and at the Sur La Table at the Domain in Austin, from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, December 9. Call it a good excuse for extra holiday shopping – and to take care of the food-lovers on your gift list.

What’s the over-under on the number of times the little dynamo will utter her famous “Yum-O!” do you suppose?

El Paso International is a very nice airport. At its entrance, sits an impressive sculpture of Spanish explorer Juan de Oñate. During a recent trip to El Paso, I enjoyed beautiful panoramic views on Scenic Drive and Loop 375 (Transmountain Road), dinner at Cappetto’s (an excellent Italian restaurant since 1956, which I visited on Trawood; there’s a second location—the original—on Montana), and the El Paso Symphony at the Plaza Theatre. I also attended the opening-night screening of No Country for Old Men (filmed in and around El Paso/Marfa/West Texas/New Mexico). The weather was perfect during the New Mexico State vs. Utah State football game at Aggie Memorial Stadium in nearby Las Cruces, N.M., with dinner at Jerusalem Grill on N. Mesa in El Paso. Gorgeous sunset. Southern Mississippi vs. UTEP football game at the Sun Bowl. Mexican breakfast at Villa y Zapata on Zaragosa. I always have a good time in El Paso del Norte. It’s like no other city in the United States.

For more information on El Paso, go HERE.

Caught several terrific games of college hoops while attending the South Padre Island Invitational Basketball Tournament at the SPI Convention Centre over Thanksgiving weekend. A noteworthy field of eight schools included Vanderbilt, Bradley, Iowa, and Utah State. Eight games in two days, and all were competitive. It was an impressively organized and well-run event. The tourney staff’s gracious hospitality was another example of South Padre Island at its best. Weather on the island was cool and gray with beautifully dramatic skies. Of course, strolling the beach and watching a Laguna Madre sunset was fabulous. I ate at Blackbeard’s, partied at Louie’s Backyard, and stayed at Casa de Siesta, a wonderful Mexican-style B&B with lovely rooms and a gorgeous courtyard on Padre Boulevard that served a fantastic breakfast. If you’re a college basketball fan, you owe it to yourself to catch this tournament next year. Texas A&M and Illinois are among the eight teams scheduled for Thanksgiving weekend 2008. See you there!

For more information on South Padre Island, go HERE.

As much as I’ll love watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade on Thanksgiving morning, I’ll wish I were in Houston to see the H-E-B Holiday Parade that takes off downtown from Minute Maid Park at 9 a.m. Thursday. The grand marshall is lovely Houston native Yolanda Adams, whose biggest hit is Believe, but whose My Favorite Things recording is becoming one of my favorite things this season. The Houston parade has been going since 1949, and this year’s version takes on a “Circus Celebration” theme, with strolling performers and animals and all the showmanship of the traditional traveling shows. On Friday, Fort Worth’s parade is the Sundance Square Parade of Lights, starting at 6 p.m. from the Radio Shack headquarters at Belknap and Taylor streets. The festivities – which actually begin at 2 p.m. – include a fun-zone for kids, holiday crafts, food booths, and more, leading up to the parade and the lighting of the 56-foot-tall Christmas tree on Main at Fourth Street, where the Texas Ballet Company will perform and kids can begin doing the photos with Santa thing. Attendees are encourage to donate new toys for needy kids, which will be collected by Cowboy Santas. On Saturday, you’ll want to take new toys also to donate to Operation Blue Santa, the project at the center of the Chuy’s Christmas Parade in Austin. It kicks off at 11 a.m. at 11th Street and Congress Avenue, ushering in the holidays with marching bands, classic cars and fabulous floats, such as the Cat in the Hat, Bob the Builder, and Tweety Bird.

Just in time for the most serious season of food, here comes a gorgeous book called Grazing Across Texas: Rod, Gun, and Ranch Cooking that serves dual purposes: A coffee-table book loaded with stunning photography, it makes a terribly impressive gift; and its seductive recipes make it a volume that nobody who loves capturing and eating the wilds of Texas can do without. Published by Collectors Covey, an elegant store in Dallas selling wildlife and sporting art, Grazing weighs as much as a small anvil but justifies its bulk with more than 500 stirring color photographs and a trunk-load of divine recipes. Author and photographer Tosh Brown of Austin traveled almost 9,200 miles over two years to produce this beauty, gathering images, natural history vignettes, and cooking techniques and ideas from the Panhandle Plains, Trans-Pecos, Hill County, Gulf Coast, South Texas Brush Country, and East Texas. Deer hunters will love the venison steak with mushroom gravy from the Tule Ranch, bird-hunters will love the smothered quail from the Pitchfork Land and Cattle Company, the Wild Turkey Pie from Perini Ranch, all out west, and the duck-black bean chili from Rough Creek Lodge, near Glen Rose. And anyone who’s wistful for warm days spent crabbing on the coast can whip up blue-crab enchiladas from Lisabella’s Bistro in Port Aransas. The book is selling like hotcakes, we’re told, at $60 apiece. Find it at Collectors Covey, 5550 Lovers Lane in Dallas, 214/521-7880, or HERE. Make plans to meet the author, who will be signing copies at the store on Saturday, December 1.

And speaking of small towns, one that does my heart good – even though everybody and their mothers-in-law now love it, too – is Gruene. I’m OK with sharing this old German burg (it’s on the outskirts of New Braunfels, on the Guadalupe River) with lots of other road trippers on the weekends because it’s such a happy little jaunt into the past. And while I do like the Gristmill, it’s become a bit too big and busy, so I like to wander next door to Janie’s Table, where the food is homey and good (I recommend the tender brisket or chicken enchiladas with salsa verde), and the “hooch” includes a fresh-lime margarita. Sometimes I just like to while away an afternoon with pals at Gruene Hall, known as Texas’ oldest dance hall, where somebody’s always noodling around onstage until the nighttime headliner goes on (this weekend, Roger Creager headlines; next Friday, it’s Charlie Robison – the cute one married to Emily of the Dixie Chicks, not the cute brother Bruce, married to singer Kelly Willis). And if I’ve booked ahead, I might nab the Fireside Lodge No. 2 room at Gruene Mansion Inn. Reasons to go to Gruene soon include hitting this weekend’s Old Gruene Market Days, with some 100 vendors selling handcrafts and fabulous packaged Texas foods. The big Christmas push starts Thanksgiving weekend, and the town lighting is December 1, with more Old Gruene Market Days December 1-2. And oh, yeah – Bruce Robison and Kelly Willis are doing their holiday show at Gruene Hall December 7, and Jerry Jeff Walker will pack the house December 14-15. Maybe I should just plan to spend a month in Gruene.

Nothing says “I love searching for a parking place” like a trip to the mall during the holidays. Of course, there are times when only a glitzy store will do, and to the mall we must go. But after that, I’m headed to the country, because shopping in small-town boutiques leads to delightful discoveries. This important realization hit home this week when I stopped in Hico, a great little town in Hamilton County, about two hours southwest of Dallas. There I lost myself in a fabulous store called Blue Star Trading Company, where I found crazy, bejeweled sunglasses; chunky necklaces with semi-precious stones; leather furniture; table settings; handbags; Texas cookbooks; and kitchen accessories. Out west near Abilene, I fell in love with the handcrafted goods made by local artist George Holland at Buffalo Gap Pottery, where the best find was a cool, cobalt-blue egg poacher you use in the microwave. Up in Gainesville, I’m crazy about a store called Dicho’s, just east of the courthouse square, where there’s a great selection of books, music, home furnishings, garden accessories, and humorous gifts. In the Hill Country, I found great wine and cheese accessories at Torre de Pietra winery in Stonewall, a short drive east of Fredericksburg. And in the Piney Woods, one of my favorites remains the Jefferson General Store, complete with a soda fountain straight from yesteryear. There’s five-cent coffee, too – when was the last time you found that? Great souvenirs include the store-brand black-eyed pea dip, garlic mustard, apricot butter, jalapeno jelly, blackberry preserves, and butter-pecan syrup, as well as T-shirts, toys, and Texas cookbooks.

Where is your favorite small-town shopping?

On my way back from visiting Lost Maples State Natural Area this past weekend, I made a detour to Love Creek Orchards Cider Mill and Store in Medina. I’ll admit that I’ve never been much of a pie person. However, that all changed on Sunday when I sunk my fork into a thick slice of their award-winning apple pie. And no, I’m not exaggerating. This slice of, um, heaven, must’ve been several inches thick considering the generous amount of apples stuffed between the crust, which was golden and delicious and had just the right amount of flakiness. By the time I cleaned my plate, I officially declared myself an apple-pie convert. I was too late to buy a whole pie (someone had snagged the last one right after I bought my slice), but lucky for me, these four-pounds of bliss can be shipped anywhere across the United States. But don’t wait too long, as Christmas orders must be placed by December 10.

Love Creek Orchards Cider Mill and Store is on Texas 16 in Medina. For more information, or to order a pie, call 800/449-0882 or go HERE.

Planning an outing four or five months in advance isn’t my idea of a good time, but I have no choice when the destination is Houston during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo – especially if I want to reach for the stars at the 2008 show. And unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past several years, you know what I mean: the Houston show does a bang-up job of bringing country music’s real glitterati to town. The only place you’ll find more hot names in the business, in fact, is at a something like the Country Music Awards show. On March 3, Tim McGraw takes the stage, followed by his lovely wife, Faith Hill, on March 4. On March 9, it’s Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus (if you don’t have a teenager, you may not know that Miley is the adorable offspring of the mullet-headed “Achy-Breaky” Billy Ray Cyrus, and Hannah is her alter-ego on the Disney Channel), and March 11 brings the Rascal Flatts. The reason any of this is of interest right now is that package tickets that include several of the music shows are already on sale, and it’s a good idea to buy sooner rather than later for good seats, as individual ticket sales, which begin Jan. 12, will snap up the remaining seats. But none of this hype is to say that the only reason to go to the Houston rodeo is to see one of these headliners, as there’s much more to the three-week extravaganza. The whole works is a charitable effort that raises money for youth agricultural education and has put more than $220 million toward scholarships, endowments, and more. Throughout the show, there are special promotions that invite your interest in Texas-wide culture, such as Black Heritage Day and Go Tejano Day. For more information, go HERE.