Christmas Eve Lights

 

This morning Travalon watched Wolverhampton beat Chelsea, then we went to the nearby Mass, and then because it was so warm, we took a walk at Jackson's Landing. We could hear swans, but we couldn't see them over the marsh plants. We also saw this little snowman on a bench.

My aunt sent a pretty good photo of Travalon and me at her house.

Then we watched the Packer game. They were playing the Panthers, the worst team in the league, and at first they were doing well, but pretty soon the defense was allowing the Panthers to score every time they touched the ball, so in the fourth quarter it was 30-30. The Packers got a field goal and won, but it didn't feel like much of a victory that they had to work so hard to beat such a lousy team.

It has been our tradition to go to the Indian restaurant in Middleton after the "Midnight Mass" at 5 pm at our church, but sadly there will be no Christmas Masses at our church this year. We decided to go to the Indian restaurant in Monona and then go to Stoughton to try to find a lit-up castle a friend had posted on Facebook. The restaurant was very busy, and we were sat at a little table right in front of the kitchen and had to wait awhile for our food, but it was very good. It's just not Christmas Eve without tikki masala. On the way to the restaurant, we took some pictures of lights along Fair Oaks Avenue.

Then we drove to Stoughton, hoping we could easily find the castle. It was supposedly very close to the opera house... and sure enough, we saw lights just beyond the opera house, behind the firehouse. Here are some photos.

And a short video.

I know I took more, but they haven't downloaded from the Cloud. Also, Travalon took some on his good camera, so watch for those. We did see a really cool house on the way back from Stoughton.

The Olbrich Conservatory was lit up for Christmas, and that photo turned out well, but it hasn't downloaded yet. Here are some more Christmas lights.

Just kidding, this is the tower at Airgas. It's beautiful all year long, not just at Christmas.

Then we went to 9:00 Mass in the gym. We sang a lot of my favorite carols, and the choir was fabulous. I was so happy when they sang "O Magnum Mysterium" by Victoria - we always use to sing that on Christmas Eve in my church choir. It was a very fitting way to celebrate the Incarnation of the Deity.

When we came home, we exchanged presents. I gave Travalon a personalized Wolverhampton towel and a Wolverhampton mug. He gave me Pantera socks, a mug that quotes a Steely Dan song, and a Niko pillow that was hand-crocheted in Ukraine. I took photos of all of this, but they aren't downloading from the Cloud, so I'll just have to post them later. Maybe tomorrow.

Famous Hat