Snowy Thanksgiving with Turkey Cupcakes and Santa

Up in Truckee for Thanksgiving, and the trees went in before the turkey did — both of them, the white one in the corner hung with the old glass ornaments and lit up against the dark windows, the Léger poster keeping watch from the other wall.

The girls took over the table with cupcakes: chocolate frosting, candy eyes, candy-corn tail feathers fanned across the back, one candy corn stuck point-down for the beak. Two full trays of turkeys by the time they were done, plus a bowl of loose candy corn that did not stay full.

Snow came in, so we walked down along the creek in the afternoon. Santa turned up mid-leap over the water behind one of the girls, who was looking the other way entirely.

By the end of the day the road down to the lake was white and the far ridge across the water still had some color on it.