Belated Christmas Shots

I am so woefully behind in posts!  I just finally managed to download a lot of random shots that have been living on my camera SD card for ages.  Since these are way past being seasonally appropriate already, I thought I post them first.  I've taken down the tree and decorations inside, but haven't gotten to the outside ones yet, so that's my excuse.  These are late, but not quite yet absurdly late.  Right?

Christmas Eve, a colleague of my husband's invited us to go ice skating in Clinton Square in downtown Syracuse with her enormous extended family.  I've wanted to go skating there for ages and hadn't made time for it, and Christmas Eve seemed like a perfectly romantic time to do it.



And it was a lovely time!  The weather was brisk and bright and calm, and the moon shone over the rink.  The crowd was a wonderful mix of folks from all walks of life.  Brand new skaters tottering out there for the first time, and experienced skaters (like my husband) skating circles around us mediocre skaters.  There were lots of children of all ages, adults, and even some elderly folks out on the ice.  There were people of all races speaking a delightful mix of languages, all just laughing and enjoying each other's company.

I skated until my toes were frozen, then put my fuzzy boots back on and pulled out my camera.  I couldn't miss the opportunity to try to capture the lights!  Photographing Christmas lights on a cold evening while listening to echoing sounds of laughter and scraping skates turned out to be pure magic.  I hope you enjoy a few of the shots.