Somehow, two months has passed since Christmas and we finally got around to sorting through the ~500 or so photographs that were taken over Christmas. I learned a while ago that here on WordPress, one can backdate a post — effectively, you can select the date that it will appear to have been posted…and WordPress will automatically keep them in order. For instance: I could date this post back to 12/26 or so and it’d appear in the proper sequence with the other posts. What an incredibly effective way to mask the fact it took me two months to get to this batch of photos. But instead, I’m just going to leave it right here – proudly posted on March 1, 2015 … however out of time that may appear.

Christmas 2014 took us on the ‘circuit’ as we’ve come to call it – a trek to both families in Minnesota and South Dakota. But before the bit trip, early in the month we geared up by visiting the Christmas Tree farm and cutting down our tree. It was a slightly smaller tree this year since we knew we’d be away from the house for more than half of December (first with the San Francisco trip, and then with the family Christmas trip). We also squeezed in our traditional trip to the plaza for some window shopping and dinner at Winsteads and some sugar cookie baking and decorating. They didn’t last long…

Decorating the house the day after Thanksgiving:

The search for the 2014 Christmas Tree: 

One of our annual Christmastime traditions is a trip to the Country Club Plaza for some window shopping.
Christmas #1:  Lakeville, MN:

Mae with Grandpa Bob and Grammy M: The bag left on the porch by Santa was a huge hit:  Christmas #2:  Yankton, SD:

A Christmas eve trip to the Visitor’s Center overlooking Gavin’s Point Dam:  A Christmas afternoon trip to Memorial Park:

Before leaving Yankton, we took a trip down to the Meridian Bridge – one of the oldest double-decker bridges in the Plains states.  We also took this opportunity to participate in a tradition that was adopted from counterparts on a bridge in Paris, France:  affixing a lock to the bridge and tossing the key into the river — a new custom that has been embraced by the City of Yankton: