Winter is coming!

This is our first time wintering over in a place that actually has winter in a looooong time.

Let's see.  We lived in Houston for 10 years.  Nope...no winter there really.  If it gets below fifty degrees everyone puts on a parka with a fur lined hood and refuses to go outside.

Then we went traveling and spent that first winter uhhhhh...back in Houston.

The next winter was in Del Rio, TX.  Nope...no winter there.

Then we split the winter between Tyler, TX, OKC and a cruise ship in the Caribbean.  Oklahoma gets pretty cold, but I don't think that really counts.

The one after that might sorta count.  We spent the first half of the winter in Virginia.  That is pretty much the archetype for American Winter.  It has a Norman Rockwell-esque look and feel to it that comes straight out of the imagination of what winter and Christmas is supposed to look like.

But we barely made it to the New Year.  Then we hightailed it out of there with the first real winter storm on our heels. We spent the second half in...uhhh, Houston.

Last year was in the San Francisco bay area.  Yeah, it rained!

So, this is a new experience for us.  We are planning on staying planted in a cold(ish) weather state over an entire winter. (Yeah...ish.  It's not like we are in Montana or Minnesota or some other M state where the winter turns your porch into a better freezer than your freezer.

Rainy and cold, that's what we get.

We heard of this wonderful sounding little event called the Olylightstravaganza.  Yeah, I know..right.  How awesome does that sound.  Apparently there was this walk through light display and on the occasion of the first lighting they were having free cookies and cupcakes (sponsored by local business) and cider if you brought a donation to the local food bank.  Man, that sounds right up our alley.  Locally oriented, Christmas lights, cookies, how does it get better.

So we packed the kids up in near freezing temperatures and off we went.

We were a little surprised when we got there though.

It was just this one house.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it was a nice house.  It was really heavily lit. And they provided a neat little path for your passage through the display.  Heck, the cupcakes and cookies were pretty delicious.

It's just when you hear, lightstravaganza, you develop certain expectations. I mean, maybe a neighborhood or a business district or something.  Nope.  One house.

Then they turned on the lights.

Yep.

So, I backed away to a nearby hill to attempt to catch the grandeur and majesty of the whole thing.

Light-a-palooza maybe.  Not sure it is a stravaganza.

But hey, we brought a donation.  They did have cookies and little mini cupcakes along with hot cider.

Might as well walk around.  There were only a hundred or so other people on this guy's lawn. 

And there were lights. 

It was cold.  That is the universal, "My face is going numb" look/

But...cider.

It didn't take too long to see it all.  We headed back to the car, cranked the heater and left.  Since I brought the big camera and tripod and all I figured we could stop and take a few pictures of the state capital on the way home.  It is pretty when it is all lit up at night.

Glad I did.

I love that cloud.

Then we packed it in and went home.  Such are the pleasures you find in a smaller city.  It's neat.  Olympia has this weird blend of large and small that makes it very interesting.  Someday it will grow large and homogenized, but until then, I think we will enjoy it.