Twelve Days of Christmas

So the first two pictures show the large herd of antelope gathering to paw through the snow in order to scrounge for whatever they can find to eat.  They do eat sagebrush, and there is lots of that, but as we began to notice the antelope file from over a hill, we stopped counting at about 250, but they kept coming and coming.  In all of the years we have lived in Carbon County, we have never witnessed such a large herd.  We estimated over 500 in total.  This is a view we saw from our dining room window and because they were across the highway, the picture may be a little blurry.

On the first day of Christmas.....my Christmas tree all decked out in icicles and antlers.  The antlers just happened to be there where the tree needed to be.  The icicles...well, this is for my daughter.  I grew up with a Charlie Brown Christmas tree that dad purchased shortly before Christmas and it had some pretty spare decorations, mostly homemade, and a few lights.  But we NEVER had icicles which were on every tree if you could afford them.  Back then they were actually foil, but now they are a type of plastic I think.  Anyway I always thought trees with these silver shiny icicles were so pretty and I had them on my trees forever until my daughter voiced her opinion.  She did not like them.  So, they have been absent from my tree for a good many years and on an artificial tree, they are not practical.  But we have a real tree which will be recycled and VOILA!--I have icicles.  This is part of my "Old Fashioned Christmas" as the fruitcakes are still getting soaked with brandy and the sugar cookie dough is in the fridge. We put lights on the gutters on the house front and on the tree out front yesterday and actually had to get in the car to drive around to see how it looked after dark.

"Fruitcakes are like in-laws.  They show up at the holidays.  You have no idea who sent them, how old they are, or how long they'll be hanging around your kitchen."  ~ Josh Sens, freelance writer in Oakland, CA