Christmas Lights and Lites

It's that time of year again, time for me to share some pictures from this year's Miller Holiday Lites Christmas event!

I love the colors of the lights on this keg tree. You might not expect a keg tree to look cool, but it's a pretty reflective surface to work with. So any color of light is probably going to look good on it.

The Miller logo tree topper:

This is a sight you see as you walk along to the light show: a very festive and giant bottle of beer.

How's this for perspective? It's like some sort of prism effect.

Here we are at the Miller house as it's ready to show off for Christmas with lights set to music. I thought we saw some particularly pretty colors of light this year.

I'll show you a few different views of it in different colors. The colors make a big difference in how the house comes across. The blue is kind of spooky.

I think those dancing light snowflakes on the lawn were new this year.

This was one of my favorite color combinations. I like that shade of pink in general and those trees are looking pretty wild in red.

This view came at the end of the show. There were rainbow colors just going wild every which way.

Different objects showed up in the windows while different songs played.

It was fun how much the crowd got into the music this year. A lady next to me was doing the twist and then kind of hopping around through the whole show, and she wasn't alone!

Quite a bit of "snow" fell at the end of the show. I bet this was actually soap. I think that's what fake snow is normally made from. This photo makes it look like a real blizzard.

I was walking briskly while taking this one, so it has that kind of whoooosh look to it. I like the way they decorate the arches with snowflakes each year.

The Miller Inn

Into the caves! I like this shot because the crowd is looking up. I'm not sure why they're looking up. Maybe the tour guide said something to make them do that.

A closer view of the beer garden mural:

Sadly, the "ghost" of Frederick Miller no longer makes an appearance. I'm not sure why not, because he added a lot! But in his place, I'll add this gentleman who you can probably spot in the mural.

An eerily lit statue of... the ice man?

I wish this photo was more clear. Again, I was on the move and it was dark. Maybe it's from seeing all those Halloween props you guys make, but that's how I'm seeing this light fixture. It looks like a rib cage with two skeletal arms holding the lights.

Now we're back on the street, going the opposite way. I was glad to capture this view of the lit up conveyer belt up top. Cases of beer are traveling across it.

This is a peek inside "The Stables" where we get the beer samples at the end of the tour.

Inside the room, there is a collection of bottle openers on display. Maybe I'm not up to date and those are current beer boxes, but they look vintage to me.

You get three samples of beer on this tour. The first has to be Miller Lite, which is fine with me. The second options are below. These two photos are kind of fuzzy because I didn't plan to share them at the time. But later, I thought "Maybe some people reading my blog will have tried these and want to discuss them?" So, if you have, let's discuss!

Mom had the Miller High Life, although I'm pretty sure they gave her Miller Lite again. I had the Blue Moon Belgian White, which I really liked. The man at the bar told me it had Valencia orange peel and coriander in it. I could really taste the citrus!

The options for drink #3 are below. Mom had the Crispin Rosé, which tastes like a very sweet combination of wine/beer. I had the Blue Moon Winter Wheat Spiced Abbey Ale. That was a darker beer than the last Blue Moon I had. I'd call it a medium beer. It was just a nice, medium beer. Again, I liked it. I must be a fan of Blue Moon.

The Miller Light:

The Crispin Rosé bubbling about:

A little still life:

Cheers! 🍻

A pretty cool Blue Moon lantern lamp:

This is the music I listened to while putting this blog post together. I enjoyed it, so I thought I'd pass it along!

A link for those who read my blog in email form:

Christmas Relaxing Piano Collection

P.S. ~ I thought I'd share a book I just finished with you guys:

Reflections of a Small Town Santa is the true story of a man who played Santa Claus in Cedarburg years back. The story meant something to me, in part because Cedarburg means something to me. Maybe you guys would feel enough of an attachment to the place from reading my blog posts over the years to understand some of what he wrote. But really, if you've ever been in any small, country town you'll understand the setting.

The cover states that you'll laugh and cry while reading this, and that's true. I felt surprised at how emotional I got by the end of the book!

You get the perspective of what it's like for the person in the Santa suit. I've read stories from other people who've played Santa, but this was by far the most sweet. I have a feeling this is the sweetest person I've read an account from.

I could relate somewhat to being the costumed character who talks with kids from sitting out each year in my costume for trick-or-treat. He wrote this book in a way that made me think he kept a journal each year of the highlights. His accounts were a lot like the stories I put up about the trick-or-treaters in my blog each Halloween. I could relate to the unpredictability of what the kids are going to say or do. This Santa really had to think on his toes at times. I'm just sitting out there having fun, but being Santa carries some weight. This guy had to think up some meaningful comments on the spot, and he did!

So if you run across this book, pick it up. It's sweet and surprisingly thought provoking. I was left thinking that playing Santa or Mrs. Claus is a pretty meaningful way for a person to spend their life. 🎄

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! 🎄