Happy New Year!

I hope you are all having a happy new year's day, and that 2018 is off to a great start for you. It is off to a very cold start where I am! It's 5° now and according to the internet, it feels like -13° out there. I'm not going to go outside to find out how it feels!

In keeping with the cold theme, and also the New Year theme, I'm going to share some photos I've been saving up of the fresh, clean snow. I thought fresh snow on a bright sunny day is a good symbol for a new year. And come to think of it, this bridge is a symbol in itself - a bridge from one year to the next.

So getting off to our fresh start here... I took this first set of photos on a cold day a few weeks back in the downtown village area. I was in a small park, across this bridge.

It was very peaceful, being the only person out there. I think the temperature had a lot to do with that!

Aren't blue shadows on the snow pretty?

This one is of the bridge railing. That snow doesn't even look real. It looks like some kind of fluffy dessert topping.

A creek runs under the bridge.

You can get an idea of its outline better here.

These rocks looked like a series of mushrooms or marshmallows.

A little bit of snow melting on the bridge:

This photo is my computer's wallpaper now. I really like the look of the red berries against that bright, blue sky.

It's fun to see any sign of plant life in winter. You might remember seeing these berries in one of my autumn blog posts.

This next set of photos was taken in a local park. 

This next picture was one I was hoping to get that day. The sun shining through this area of trees reminds me of The Nightmare Before Christmas, when Jack is walking through the forest, looking at different holiday doors on the trees.

What do you think?

A link for those who don't get the videos:

The Nightmare Before Christmas - Forest Scene

There was this cool situation where part of the water had turned to ice and part had not. We must have been at just the right in-between temperature for that to happen.

I thought it was so pretty when the sun came out and there was this warmth in the trees, next to that ice and snow.

I was trying to photograph the deer that was leaning over and didn't even notice the second one who was looking at me! After I took the photo and looked at my camera, I was like "Wait a second! There's another one?"

Here's something I've never seen - a waterfall that is partially frozen and partially moving.

Do you see the water falling on the right side of this picture?

This old house is near the park. As I'm looking at this photo, I'm noticing how there's very little color in it. It's nearly sepia. I feel like this same image could have been seen for the past century.

And in keeping with the snowy theme... I'm almost afraid to decorate with anything that says "Let it snow". I think it's some superstition that if I say this, a bunch of snow is going to fall. 😄 But these gel clings were too cute to pass up. I found them at Target's after Christmas sale. The after Christmas sale was at 50% off when I was there, but it's probably at least 70% off now. I'd be interested to hear about your after Christmas finds!

I'm not sure if you can tell, but I placed the clings on actual snow to take this picture.

I'll leave you guys with a little trivia gift from MeTV. It's a fun way to start 2018.

14 words and slang terms that turn 50 years old in 2018

Merry Christmas! Favorite December moments

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you've all had a fun December, full of winter activities. Looking back at some of my photos from the past month, I realized why I'd felt so busy! There was a lot going on. I'm going to share a few of my favorite moments/images from this past month.

This picture, which is also my desktop wallpaper now, was taken in the downtown area of the village. You guys might remember all the cool Halloween spinning characters this store was selling a few months back.

A close up of the lights on one of the trees that lines the main street area. You'll see those lit up in a bit.

Simple and classic!

You guys might also remember this cute birdhouse that sits outside a shop in the village. I think I photographed this around Halloween.

There was a slight dusting of snow the day I took these pics. We haven't had much snow around here this month. I was happy to see some start falling yesterday. I've always been joking that I could do without snow except for around Christmas. Looks like things worked out the way I wanted them to this year!

We went on the Miller Lights tour/beer tasting again this year. I took this pic in the visitors' center parking lot. That's a pretty cool, and spooky red tree! I like when people uplight their trees like that.

Check out the full moon we got to walk under that night! That's a keg tree, by the way.

You can see it in more detail here, complete with a "Miller" topper!

These are sights we saw while walking to the light show.

They play Christmas carols as you walk down this path.

On to the light show! The house looks like something out of Amityville at this point, or off the The Amityville Horror poster anyway. (The glowing windows)

But it changed colors and looks many times. The red was probably my favorite.

Those curved parts leap all around in sync with the music.

We didn't have actual snow that night, so they made use of the snow machine:

Isn't that pretty?

A bit of the "snow" landed in front of me on the gate. Then I could see that it looked like some kind of frothy soap.

Into the Miller caves!

The Girl in the Moon:

I'm not exactly sure what this building is. There are lots of cool scrolling type details on it, though. I think I'm going to have to find out what this is/was.

Inside the beer tasting area...

Mom with the giant Miller Lite bottle:

If you're familiar with downtown Milwaukee, you might have seen this bridge. I never thought I'd know what it looked like from directly under it. As it turns out, this was the stop for a Christmas train that came through town.

The train goes across the country, and if you time it right, you can catch it. And if you're really lucky like we were, the doors will open exactly where you're standing and you'll see a concert directly in front of you!

As you can see, the train is all decked out with Christmas lights. That metal door dropped down, and we got to see a performance.

I can't remember who we saw, but they were talented! I think if I was more into country music, I might have known.

Do any of these musicians look familiar to you guys?

This building has a drop at the top of it that forecasts the weather. So depending on if it is blue, red, or yellow, you can tell if the next day is going to be warmer or colder. I think those are the only color options. As you can see, the building looked very Christmassy this year!

Milwaukee's chandelier decorations:

That's the City Hall behind it.

After the Christmas train viewing, we happened upon this park area. This area hasn't been so well decorated in the past, so this was a neat surprise!

I bet it took a lot of time to wrap these trees, branch by branch.

Mom in the antique looking, light covered picture frame:

They had this whole living room area set up.

I got to feel like Lily Tomlin as Edith Ann on Laugh-In. 😁 I wonder what age I was the last time I felt this small in a chair?

The Cathedral Square area always has a nice light display and small trees decorated by different school groups.

Isn't that tree silhouette gorgeous?

The entrance to the park:

There's that weather forecasting drop building in the background.

Remember those round lights I took a picture of in the village? Here they are lit up on the trees that line the street.

This picture was also my desktop wallpaper at one point. I love this decorated bike. It's cute for any season.

And there's that birdhouse again, all lit up at night.

A look at the gazebo through the tree lot:

This guy is in a neighbor's yard. This is the same neighbor who had all the Halloween blow molds up this year.

Another one of his blow mold characters, looking cool against that green wall.

This is another yard you guys would have seen pictures of at Halloween. This guy has been getting really into the holidays the past few years. That "tree" of lights connects at the top of a flag pole. It's hard to see here, but the candy canes he made are circled around the bottom of the tree.

Here are those candy canes in the daylight. This inventive man actually made those candy canes out of pool noodles and colored duct tape! You could never tell, right?

These two are also his. It looks like Elmo is reaching out for the leg lamp, like Ralphie was. I'm not sure if that's intentional, maybe he's just waving. Hmm...

I wish you guys a great rest of your Christmas and a wonderful 2018! I look forward to reading your blog posts in the coming year and chatting with you on Twitter! 🎄