In Some Strange House

Yesterday Casper finally recieved it's first good dusting of snow... which turned into a blizzard. But that couldn't keep me from attending the annual Wyoming Symphony Orchestra's Christmas house tour.

As you can tell this fella was over joyed at the snow.

 

What can I say, I'm a sucker for free things. The tickets for the house tour cost $60 (something I would never fork over out of my own pocket) but this year being a member of Stage III's Board of Directors meant our tickets had been comped (Thanks Symphony Orchestra!). So I layered myself from head to toe in anything I could find in the giant pit of clothing that used to be my closet, and headed downtown with my old friend Bryan Pryde who recently came back from Minnesota.

When we arrived at Grant Street Grocery (tour headquarters), we traded tickets for wristbands, a map of the neighborhood path we needed to follow, and a promise of food on our return. Our first stop, across the street to Scrooge's House. Oh did I mention, the tour is themed after A Christmas Carol? Folks decorated their downtown mansions to represent Christmas Past, Present, and Future as well as our first stop, Scrooge's House.

Luckily all the stops displayed eye-catching "Home Tour" signs to let us know we were indeed in the right place.

 

I tried to get Bryan to move this sign to the lawn of the house next door, but alas, our digits were frozen (next year we'll bring gloves). Epic prank fail.

On the front porch, a box of blue surgical booties waited patiently to cover our wet feet.

 

One of the most awkward things with heels. The fabric also set off a paranoia in my head I had something stuck to my shoe.

Soon upon entrance Scrooge scolded us "Don't touch anything!" I immediately started petting the nearest doorframe. This stop definitely stole the show. The decorations all stemmed from the trun-of-the-century antiques, and the actual characters interating with tourists entertained the high heavens out of me.

The Scrooges

 

Hopes high, we stepped out into the calm snowy night to trek our way to Christmas present, sans booties of course. Feet frozen solid, we stepped through the next threshold and instead of being greeted by a character, the smell of Walmart Christmas bombarded my nose.

That's Bryan stroking a fur blanket.

 

 Not going to lie, this display equaled the most boring. It looked like someone had opended their already Christmas ready adobe to the public, not a scene from Charles Dickens classic tale (unless you count the movie playing above the fire place). To drive my point home, the highlight discussion piece involved a square posterboard with gold Christmas balls glued to it (please see above picture for refernece of said oddity). I had no idea why someone would spend time creating that.

Christmas Future proved a tad more theatrical. After putting on a new set of the required booties, we stepped into the open casket viewing of Scrooge's sinister self.

Apparently Scrooge is Catholic.

 

 We muttered a few Hail Mary's, lit a candle, and flew out the door, arriving at the House of Christmas Past before we could shout "Jacob Marley!"

Slightly more artistic, the past came alive. A couple local artists (I will update this post with their names) created new pieces specifically for this display.

One of the silhouettes.

 

The female artist created creepy silhouettes of scenes from Scrooge's past and scattered them amongst the walls. The male artist brought classic movie scenes of A Christmas Carol to life through a black and white film compostion projected onto the dining room wall. The house filled with sounds of eery piano music composed by the same fellow who cut the film together.

But alas, these artful beauties couldn't keep us from the smell of food wafting from the tent down the block; so one last time we raced into the snowy night back to tour headquarters.

Thankful to be out of the cold, we stepped in line for some delicious Christmas treats. Apparently melted snow drenched us from head to toe, which we discovered when one of the caters jokingly mentioned we were flicking water all over him.

Where's the figgy pudding???

The taste of homemade bacon brussel sprouts, stuffing, and turkey smothered in gravy satisfyed my tastebuds to high heavens. The small servings slightly disappointed my fat kid heart, but I topped off the void with some hot, holiday wine/mead beverage and a decorative raisin pie of sorts.

 

I found my friend Betsy Bower mingling around the tent, so she joined us for some grub as well.

Betsy

 

After a little chit chat and Bryan almost burning the flesh off his legs from standing in front of the furnace too long, we headed back to the car; but not before we grabbed a chesnut roasting on an open fire.

Mmmmm.... creamy.

 

 The only suggestions I'd give for next year's tour; have the candy cane volunteers at each home talk about the history of all the houses (since they are afterall historical homes) and make sure the character actors are stationed at each one the entire time. I really wanted to learn something at each stop or at least be entertained by something other than a discussion about stapling moss to a cork board.

Overall thoguh, the tour was a great excuse to leave to warm protection of my apartment, and enjoy the winter wonderland lying just outside my door, I too often ignore.