Singing outdoors

Christmas caroling by the downtown Christmas tree. The little children sang louder than the adults!

(Addendum: River Country Journal ran a 1 minute audio of the, uhm, music... thanks Bruce! Links from here: “Christmas Around Town” to continue )

Waiting

December's theme is "Waiting". Dogs are good at waiting. They wait for us to come home, wait for their walk, wait for someone to come paddle the boat.

Click here to view thumbnails for all City Photo Theme Day participants

Goggle Dog

Walking along the street was this serious pit bull with his owner. No, I don't know why he's wearing goggles. And don't pet him... according to his backpack sign, he's working!

(The dog looks quite a bit like the famous "Nipper".)

See more of the world in monochrome at The Monochrome Weekly, presented by Aileni.

Weenie King

The Weenie King, a local institution, brings his cart with its fine sausages and condiments to all fairs and city events, including the "Christmas Around Town". He can also be found outside the public library all summer long. The Weenie King makes me truly regret that I don't like hot dogs.

Christmas Around Town

Lots of activities today downtown, sales, Santa, carriage rides and street vendors, "Christmas Around Town" is the name of the event. Here is a proud reindeer with his handler, Joshua, in a pass-through between stores and a parking lot. I didn't catch the reindeer's name. The pass-through was formerly part of the Falvey clothing store chain from the 1920s. The building collapsed while being restored, and the city purchased it, filled the basement with dirt, and planted a large tree!

"Black" Friday Dawn

Just after dawn this morning, the sky shows a lot of blue, but the sun has not yet reached the buildings. The Christmas tree (center, in shadow) will not be lit until the official ceremony tomorrow, although it is already covered with decorations. Merchants will open soon; this is "Black Friday", from the expression "In the black", meaning profitable. The term comes from old hand written business ledgers, where profits were written in black and losses were written in red. In the US, retail sales are highest in the weeks before Christmas, and since the day after Thanksgiving is usually a day off work for most people, it has become an especially important sales day for retailers.

Find links to more of this week's Skywatch Friday participants at http://skyley.blogspot.com/.

Veggie Thanksgiving

Since most of our extended family are vegetarians, we had a special feast today sans the traditional roast turkey. I've spent the last few days preparing and coordinating -- Seitan roasted in barbeque sauce; acorn squash stuffed with apple and cranberry; spicy sweet potato, cooked in cocoanut milk; mashed russet potatoes (with golden fried onions to mix in); stuffing of oatmeal bread croutons with pears and leeks; mushroom gravy; roasted green beans with walnuts; corn with mint; Brussels sprouts with a mustard and maple syrup glaze; parsnip puree; and two kinds of cranberry sauce. A spinach salad with amazing little black lentils found by my sister-in-law, who also made the bread. Little Lily helped create a dessert of pears decorated to look like turkeys, and there was another dessert of cherry-apple crumble with whipped cream. No one went away hungry!

To all in the US, Happy Thanksgiving.