CHRISTMAS PHOTOS

Felix has been under the weather for the past three days and our plans have been stalled in order to allow Felix time to recover. Well, Felix hasn't really recovered; but he did give in to my desire to drive around and take pictures of Christmas decorations with my new Canon 20-D camera.

We went to the "Our Lady of the Snows" in Belleville, Illinois and crossed the river to the headquarters of Anheuser Busch to what I consider the special in Christmas decorations. The Lady of Snows display features over one million miniature white lights with a few colored lights thrown in to enhance the display. We have toured the display every year for the last 15 years and it gets better each year. Naturally, it is religion oriented considering it is owned and maintained by the Order of the Oblate Fathers of the Catholic Church. They, also, run a retirement home and apartment building in the complex as well as a full service restaurant.

The headquarters of Anheuser Busch in St. Louis is a marvelous place to visit any season of the year. It is, I believe, the world's largest brewery. They outline certain of their buildings in white lights and have many trees covered with colored lights. The centerpiece of the display is a 40 foot Christmas tree that slowly changes colors.

Now, to finish this post; I must admit that our first attempt at digital photos of these displays did not turn out as expected. I will not post them here. Corrections to the settings on the camera have been made and if I can talk Felix into going back a second time (that will not be a small feat), I will post the product of our efforts as soon as possible.