Merry Christmas!

I didn't do a very good job of sending Christmas cards this year so I hope you can consider this my card to you. I spent pre-Christmas in Seattle with Andy, Brandon, and Alix. I had a fabulous time and hope that they did as well.

Of course, as soon as I got to Brandon and Alix's place the first thing I did was go out onto the deck and take pictures.
The weather was almost balmy and has even fooled some of the trees and bushes into thinking it is spring.

But, inside it was looking a lot like Christmas.


And we are looking pretty jolly!

I was there on Winter Solstice and wanted to do something special involving lights of some sort. So we decided to go to the Belview Botanical Gardens to see their display. Having been to the light display at the zoo in Billings, I had a pretty good idea what to expect. At least I thought I did. What I didn't expect was a spectacular display of lights. Here we are in front of "forsythia" and a "butterfly"
We then moved on to an incredible display of hyacinths, water lillies, cattails, ducks and a fountain.
My three shining lights
Sunflowers and grapes. What a great way to spend the Solstice.
The next night Andy fixed a most incredible Indian meal for our "Christmas dinner."
He says he enjoys cooking for us even though he cooks every day at his job. We really enjoy him cooking for us!

I had to leave the next day, but we had time to stop at Pikes Market for a bit (had to get my Pike's fix).

Then, sadly, it was back to MtnHm and my quiet and very empty house. I have to confess that I broke down this year and bought a fake tree. After looking at trees at a lot in town, I decided that $50 for a blue-tinged and manicured tree wasn't worth it so I bought a fake one at Wally World for $35. It's too perfect looking but it holds the ornaments (and I didn't have to string lights on it) so I guess that's the main thing.

It was fun getting out the decorations although it took twice as long as usual to decorate because I didn't know where they "belonged." But I figured it out

and it looks a bit like Christmas


Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!