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.  

Snow attack

We were deep in enemy territory when the snow hit.  We could not afford to pause to wait out the storm, so we continued on quickly and silently, almost like the ghosts we would rapidly become if we were caught.  

Unfortunately, in this much snow even ghosts leave tracks.  Snow is a mixed blessing for those being tracked.  If enough falls, it might cover your tracks again.  If not, you might as well leave neon arrows pointing after you pass.  You'll be found just as quickly.  

Luck was not with us.  The snow was abating, and we were not close enough to safety to make a run for it.  We would have to make a stand.  

We built the fort at the base of an ancient spruce.  We worked with an energy and efficiency borne of panic, our movements almost too quick to follow.    It was a small fort, but sturdy.  We cleared the ground around it so the enemy wouldn't be able to come close without being exposed.  

We knew the attack would come at dawn.

Fortunately, ammunition was plentiful.   

Finally, we were ready.  When the enemy attacked he would be met with deadly force.  

There was nothing left to do but take turns at the watch and try to catch an hour or two of sleep before the battle was joined.  We slept, dreaming that we were ghosts already.  

 And the beautiful, silent night slowly slipped away...