Santa and his reindeer are captured flying over Hidden Lake at Glacier National Park in northern Montana. Seeing the jolly old fellow carrying his packages to good little girls and boys around the world was a welcome sight this year. Our trip to Glacier was a highlight of our western mountain trip in July 2019. We have lots of wonderful photos from that entire trip, but this one is a favorite. It seemed like just the thing to brighten your day while we brace for yet another wave of COVID variants to ripple through.

Jay took the main photo of Hidden Lake with his Nikon D5600 and 18-300mm lens. The detail is amazing, from the nearby fir trees to the reflections in the lake.  Adobe Stock came to the rescue with a image of Santa’s sleigh tethered to actual reindeer. Adobe Photoshop was used to modify the shape of the reindeer train to create an arc, and to compose the final image. A watercolor filter was applied to blend the images together.

Printing was done using the same technology as last year: Apple Photo using the Mimeo plug in for the card designing and print services.

This year’s cards are being mailed very late – actually after Christmas for the first time. The cards were ready but our annual issue of the Gazette wasn’t.