Holiday at Home, Montana-style

Beautiful windows greet you on a holiday walk through downtown Hamilton, Mt. Above is Tamiko's, a furniture and accessories store at 213 W. Main Street. We're doing most of our holiday shopping in these small, special shops on or near a half-dozen blocks of Main. A Wal-Mart threat just outside of town looms once again; last time the big-box bully tried to move into this area, it was years ago and local citizens successfully fought the invasion. We're joining them again this year by, among other efforts, spending as much as we can afford in the town's locally owned stores.

Late at night, downtown Hamilton is beautiful and empty. But not so during the day, when shoppers bustle in and out of Robbins on Main (beautiful cookware, gifts and cards), Sam's Spade (garden tools, art and other innovative items), Chapter One Book Store (indie books) and Fords Department Store (Filson brand and other fine clothes for outdoorsy folks). We shop at Valley Furniture (handsome Montana-made beeswax candles and other tasteful "smalls"), Taste of Paris (olive-oil soaps from France), Bella's Boutique (Ugg-brand slippers, trendy scarves and knit cowls). Even Bitterroot Drug (Montana's oldest continuously operated drug store) has a lot to offer.

Acquired Taste, a vintage furniture and gift store operated by friend Karol Klakken, keeps a bicycle as its symbol, and Karol decorates the bike differently each season.

(1) I can't get enough of the recycled-cork gingerbread house built by my hair stylist, Jan Erickson. It's displayed at her salon in Hamilton, called The Ritz, 424 South 2nd Street.

(2) We donated some of the wine corks, and Jan used them as logs or sliced them and made moss-covered shingles.

(3) A look inside the cork house shows just how much energy and thought Jan puts into her projects. Kids, I'm guessing, must not touch.

Two screen shots from Facebook tell more of the local holiday story. Our vintage VW Westfalia's restorer, Scott Quinnett, has installed a holiday display, above, of one of his Dragonfly rental vans at the Missoula airport. "I've only been down there (airport) for about 20 mins total since it's been up," Scott writes in an email. "Lots of people with smiles, curiosity, and lots of questions when I am available. It's a pretty potent display for Montana travelers. "

And even though the valley where we live is only getting rain last night and today, the tops of mountains out our back door or 40 minutes south at ski areas (see screen shot of Chief Joseph Ski Trails, above) are beautifully powdered with many feet of snow.

Home again, we sit by the fire...

...and light candles on this, the sixth night of Hanukkah. Happy holidays, everyone.

NOLA for Thanksgiving

A dwarf palm (I want one!), as seen last week in the Uptown neighborhood of New Orleans.

We spend the week of Thanksgiving 2,300 miles southeast (and in tropical cold-hardiness zones 9a/9b) from our new home in Montana (cold zones 4b/5a). We're in my husband's hometown of New Orleans to wine and dine with about 20 cousins and their families. Otherwise, we walk around looking at homes and gardens, a LOT. I want every other plant that I see. Most won't grow where we now live.

On Day One, weather is eerily like what it had been when we left Western Montana -- overcast, damp and a chilly 40 degrees. It is too cold even to spend much time on our lovely little balcony of the Maison Dupuy in the French Quarter. But the hanging baskets of ferns and the tall palms of the courtyard don't seem to mind the chill.

Days Two and Three are perfect winter weather in NOLA -- clear blue skies and high temps in the 60s.

We stand in line outside the Acme Oyster House as the stars themselves -- raw oysters in their shells -- get unloaded out front.

Inside the Acme, we sit at the bar and have fried-oyster po-boy sandwiches and local beer. Truth be told, our Acme sandwiches this time are too bready and not dressed as we like. Maybe it's a holiday fluke. The place is busier than I've ever seen it. So are the street cars -- shiny and refurbished after Katrina. We take one (below) to Uptown.

Can you see the beads decorating this Uptown tree?

On another gorgeous day, we walk in the Marigny neighborhood, where the line-up for music at the Blue Nile catches my eye. Next trip!

Just the two of us try a posh little place near our hotel for dinner. It's Bayona, with a lush rear courtyard and even lusher interior. The place is packed but walls are beautifully upholstered, and we can really hear each other for a change. 

Alex waits for the check at Bayona. Let's just say that service was a little slow. I didn't mind.

But here's who we really came to see -- the Gales and Gale-related persons. They are cousins who generously lent us their little island-plus-cabin up on Lake Superior for 15 or so summers in a row. Now, we're in Western Montana and they are in Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, even Dubai. We all traveled to get to this lovely dinner arranged by Peggy Gale, far right. Our only problem? We stayed on the other side of the Quarter from most of these folks and saw them only twice -- for a lunch and for this wonderful dinner. Thanks, Peg!!