And here's the Ice Palace. Truthfully, I was a bit disappointed with this. It has been less blocky in years past, and there wasn't as much of a walk-through tradeoff as I had hoped. But it was still awesome and a great deal of fun.

C.J. and Mark enjoyed it, too. Although they were less exclamatory than I was. What a surprise.

If only I'd remembered to bring my sceptre....

The nice volunteers took a picture of all three of us on one of the exceedingly chilly perches they supplied.

It wouldn't be Winter Carnival without the Vulcs. Even if some area churches are killjoys about it.

One of the things people do is to lick pennies and stick them to the walls of the Ice Palace (or, this year, to hockey team sculptures for the team they support). We pennied the Palace and also the Leafs (me) and the Sharks (Mark). Our Wild were doing fine for pennies, so we let them be.

Have to have fire in the middle of all the ice sculpture. Tradition. Symbolism. Pretties. All those nice things.

Even the walls were kind of scenic.

And now for something completely gratuitous:

It's always a party at Auntie Mrissa's house!

Okay, that's all I've got for now, go home.