So how many of you out there shopped local this holiday season? I know I tried my best, but while running errands with my mom one day, I realized that in preparing for the holidays there's not much you can do except buy local — masa for the tamales (Alejandro's for us), extra tortillas for a tamale party (Anita Street Bakery and La Tauna), and meat for the tamales (American Meat Market — BTW, they have bacon-wrapped weenies in the freezer section that I might write about later).

If you need more reminding on how important shopping local is, we came across a video produced by former Tucson Unified School board candidate and city council staffer Miguel Ortega with the purpose of doing just that — reminding you all the good reason to shop local as much as you can.

The video is part of a project Ortega is working on called Vamonos Tours. So far, Ortega told us, KXCI and Access Tucson are running the video as a public service announcement. The goal he said is to get local businesses to sponsor these buy-local messages.

"These are not commercials for their businesses. They have no say in the content. We only guarantee that we will tape the message at their place of business, use their product or services to underscore the message and thank them for sponsoring the PSA," Ortega said.

For more info on his latest project, go to its Facebook page at Vamonos Tours Arizona.