Fredrick the Christmas Rabbit Returns!

Fredrick the Gingerbread Rabbit of Christmas was lovingly (re)formed in the presence of not one, but two Christmas Camels.  

His life was threatened early on by a rolling pin wielding fiend, but he escaped with minimal damage to life, limb, and ego.  

 And so Fredrick the Gingerbread Rabbit came to be.  Again.   

 The process of gaining consciousness was not quite as odd the second time around, and he danced in celebration of life with Ginger the gingerbread girl, and Prince Halferdimple the gingerbread boy.

The boy and girl ran off to play with other gingerpeople, and Fredrick began to explore his surroundings.  The first thing he ran into was a Gingerbread Snow-Lion.  The lion growled and Fredrick's nose trembled.

"Hello?  My name is Fredrick the Gingerbread Rabbit who saved Christmas last year.  Please don't eat me!" he squeaked.

The snow-lion growled again and smiled.  "Of course I won't eat you!"  he said.  "I'm a carnivore, not a cannibal, and gingerbread is not part of my diet.  I'm Leonardo, the Gingerbread Snow-Lion."

Relieved, Fredrick smiled back and suggested that they make a snowperson together.  Leonardo agreed and the two of them set to work.  Being a snow-lion, Leonardo was especially skilled at forming snow and soon they finished and stepped back to admire their beautiful snow...girl?

For indeed, somehow she had turned out to be a girl.  A British Gingerbread Snowgirl.  "Hello," she greeted them.  "My name is Sandra the snow-girl.  It's a pleasure to meet you both."  She bowed, as only a gingerbread snow-girl can bow.  Fredrick and Leonardo bowed back.

"Would you like to go get a candy cane with us?" Fredrick asked.

"I'd be delighted," Sandra replied.

Soon the three of them were happily licking and nibbling away on a large candy cane.

They made short work of it.

Then it snowed on them.  Snowflakes in gingerbread land are excessively large, and it took a while for them to escape from underneath it.

When they finally removed themselves from the snowflake they found the were in the presence of a gingerbread camel.  A very old and loquatius gingerbread camel.

"My great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great.........great grandfather came to Bethlehem with the wisemen about 2000 years ago," he began.  Fredrick and his friends listened as Camus the Camel continued and told them of Bethlehem and the Angels that spoke to the shepherds, and the brilliant star that his ancestor's master followed.

By the end of the story it was getting late.  Camus the Camel fell asleep where he was and Fredrick, Leonardo, and Sandra sneaked off and headed for bed themselves.  Fredrick thought he was quite alone when suddenly he found himself nose to nose(?) with the oddest creature he'd ever seen.

"What...ah, I mean, who are you?" he stuttered, trying to stay polite.

"I'm Alfonso Henri Shlomo Ling the 7th," the creature replied.  "I'm a bacteria.  Let's go make yogurt!"

And they did.

The End.

*In case you want to make gingerbread adventures of your own, here's the recipe:

Dark Cookies:
1 c. sugar
1 c. crisco
1 c. molasses
3 eggs
(Mix together, then add:)
3 tsp. soda in 1/2 c. boiling water
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
Flour (about 6 cups - enough so the dough can be rolled out and cut)

Mix together, roll out, cut, and bake at 350 for about 9 minutes.  Then frost and decorate.  Or you can try decorating before baking too.

Marshmallow Frosting:
1/2 c. boiling water
2 c. sugar
Boil until it spins a thread out of a spoon - not long.

2 egg whites, beaten

Pour syrup into whites slowly, while beating.  Add 10-12 large marshmallows (cut in pieces).
If not stiff enough add powdered sugar and a little butter.
If too stiff add a few drops of hot water.

Christmas Stroll, 2011

General feeling of Christmas cheer?  Check.
Quickly chilling cider or cocoa?  Check.
Seven layers of clothing and still frozen extremities?  Check.
Visions of draft horses and people in odd costumes?  Check.
Strains of Christmas music floating through the air?  Check.

Congratulations, you must be at Bozeman's 31st annual Christmas Stroll.  Here's some things you might see.

The Spiders.  It's not Christmas until the Christmas Spiders are up.  

Families bundled up for a chilly evening.  

This is HOW chilly.  (That's about 26F, fyi.)

Cake Boss, eat your heart out.  We have Gingerbread houses by 7 year olds. 

And sometimes we have Gingerbread Pyramids.  

People admiring the children's handiwork.  

Starting at one end of downtown Bozeman, heading to the other.  

Elves warning that Santa's home is melting.  

You can count all the different types of hats.  

There might be a carrot caroling.  

Or marshmallows roasting on an open fire.  

Or small ones hitching a ride on dad.

There's Norwegians... 

...and Bobcat fans.  (GO CATS! :)

A living Nativity Scene with a choir...

...and, of course, with animals.  

And awed children who try to pet said animals.  

You might catch a ride on a "sleigh" pulled by draft horses.  

Or run into dozens of women drumming on buckets!  (That was almost a Seuss moment.)

Some bikers sport (very little) athletic clothing...

And musical groups abound.  

All this, and more, at the Bozeman Christmas Stroll!  See you next year?

Thanksgiving

I took advantage of our Thanksgiving celebration to try out a new lens.

 Lovely food. :)

 Good friends and

 good conversations

 Neighbor putting up Christmas lights.

 I have a cute sister. :)

Walking before dessert.

Playing games.

Aw...

Lewistown Trip

With the Thanksgiving vacation, we managed to get away from town for a couple days and head to Lewistown.  It was nearly 10pm when we got there, and the house was about 47 degrees.  It took a while to warm up, but we were glad to be there.  

The stars were out full force...there's really no place like Montana for stars, especially on a clear winter's night.  

We had a relaxing time, playing games...

reading...

and of course we had to head into town to do a little shopping.  I liked the orange glassware at an antique shop we stopped at.  It looks good enough to eat.  

The same store had these cups.  I seem to remember having identical ones when I was a child.

Another store had some funny baby items, like this bib.

And no stay would be complete without a little walk around the property.  

All in all, I think we rather enjoyed our time there.