Family Mellmann

 Wintery weather...but not much snow.

I thought I would try to capture a time-lapse of sunrise.  While the days are still short, I figured this was my best chance.  Here is my first try.    

With our family festivities done on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day is available for other things.  This year, we enjoyed a community Christmas dinner in the local civic center.  Free to everyone, this meal is advertised all over town and everyone is invited.  It is a community event put on by volunteers from all over town. The civic center, built in 1938, hosts a variety of activities from Christmas dinners to basketball games to craft markets.  The annual Christmas dinner (this is their 41st year) feeds over 700 people...including us this year. At each place at the table were postcards that people could take with them.  They had several Bible verses written out, including one of my favorites, "Be still, and know that I am God".  And all around the gymnasium were banners about Jesus being the only reason for the season, Christ being the true gift of Christmas, and so on. After 25 years of living in Vermont, where those who hold a belief in the Bible and of Je...

It has finally happened.  It is Christmas Eve Day and BOTH of our children have to work!  Patrick sent us some pictures from his morning preparing to fly, and I snagged one of Katherine after she got all decorated for her shift at the grocery store which she expected to be extremely busy.       Once Katherine was done working, we began our evening activities.  First action was the annual Christmas picture by the Christmas tree.  As this year is anything but normal, we opted for a tree in front of our apartment with the mountains in the back. With the pictures done, it was time for singing, the reading of the Christmas story, dinner, and a few presents.  With our fondue supplies in storage, we mixed things up with the menu as well and enjoyed a lovely Pork Wellington.  It was a lovely break with tradition and a fun evening.

With the winds that we've been having here for the past few days, I never expected to see a hot air balloon in the sky over Bozeman!

With Christmas coming next week, things will be quiet on the construction site for about a week. However, today there was still action on the set. The building crew was working on the roofing (this wonderful weather is perfect for the shingles) and recovering from yesterday's crazy winds.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, this region saw some strong winds.  Near Livingston it caused the interstate to shut down rerouting trucks and travelers to the side roads.  In Absarokee, the wind blew lawn furniture around, and made a stir on the construction site.  Some underlayment (roofing prep before the shingles) pulled from the nails holding it down.  One of the temporary garage doors was blown out allowing some of the lumber inside (mostly scrap) to get "sucked" out of the garage into the driveway.  And lumber that had been neatly stacked on the property was blown around.  Oh yes, and the wind also knocked over the port-o-potty which was staked to the gro...

While I was wrapping a couple of presents today, I decided to put my camera to work recording the clouds rolling by in the wind.  The wind was so strong through this region that 18-wheeler trucks were endangered and the highway between Bozeman and Livingston was closed and all interstate traffic was routed through downtown Livingston (which makes for slow moving through town).

Some people have a cubicle in an office and no windows. Some folks have large windows in fancy offices but no view. This guy has an office window with a view that changes all the time.  And apparently it even opens! Patrick continues to enjoy his pilot life.  He gets to travel all over the western half of the continent including a few landings in Canada and Mexico.  We miss him a bunch and yet it is so rewarding to see him doing what he enjoys.  

The construction site was buzzing with activity.  The building crew was working on projects outside so they could keep working without getting in the way of the other teams.  The electrical and HVAC guys were there in force bringing the big push before the weekend so that everything was ready for inspection on Monday.  Guys were climbing around on the roof and in and out of the crawl space.  There were ladders everywhere and guys walking around in the rafters.  Saws, hammers, the sounds of tape measures rolling up, electrical cable being pulled through the studs, and chatter amongst the guys almost drowned out the background sound of an audio book that the electricians were listening to on the large contractor speaker in the driveway.  The scene was exciting but a far cry from the peaceful visit I had last week. The parking area has never had so many vehicles (four more behind these trucks). It was interesting to see the specialized tools that the contracto...