This marks our 3rd year attending Christmas Tea at the historic Gallatin Gateway Inn.  What my poem does not mention is that the woman sitting at the table next to us recognized as we walked in, although I had never met her!  She had clicked through a series of links while on the internet or Facebook and ended up at my blogpost from last year’s Christmas Tea!  She said it looked so lovely and sounded so wonderful, she ended up making reservations for she and her husband!  How cool is that?  Perhaps we’ll see them again next year!

We have been so very blessed that first of all, Doug survived the accident (the worst trauma Bozeman Deaconess had ever seen).  And that Winter finally gave way to Spring.  Blessed that my business continued to GROW despite the fact that I didn’t send out a single email newsletter all year and that my websites are not yet mobile-compatible (which was my plan for March, no less).  We took it moment by moment, day by day, week by week.  Summer has just flown by and it’s the last Art Walk of the season…and yes, of course…there is still so much I wanted to do to be “ready”…but guess what?  We are having a celebration all the same because sometimes you just have to count your blessings right where you are!

So please, join us and bring all your friends to our Grand Opening Celebration to be held in conjunction with the famed Livingston Art Walk:

WHEN:  This coming Friday, August 26th

TIME:  5:30 – 8:30 P.M.

WHERE:  114 E. Lewis Street (4 or 5 doors east of Main)

The Saarel Family would be honored to have you attend.  Enjoy a glass of champagne and gourmet caramels while you peruse our fine boutique photography products.  Enter a drawing to win a FREE Holiday Mini Session.  We are so grateful to be here and would like to share our joy and blessings with you!

I first photographed newborn Luke (see photos here) in my prop-overtaken home office at Sky Ranch, so mom Amy appreciated the loft-feel of my new Livingston studio space as well as the amenities.  Seven month-old Luke is one of the happiest and most beautiful babies I have ever seen and I’m sure you will agree.  I had asked Amy to bring a floor length gown to wear for the session, inspired by an image I saw in In-Style Magazine of Julianne Moore with her daughter, Liv.  Julianne wore a voluminous Alexander McQueen gown while her baby Liv wore nothing. Amy looked stunning in her beautiful Vera Wang gown and I loved Luke’s matching GroVia diaper shell (available for purchase at The Natural Baby Co. in Bozeman).  Here are some of my favorite images from the session:

And here was the inspiration:

Image from In-Style Magazine (Aug 2010)

Entering the inn, the sound of carols being played on the piano greeted us as we made our way to our table near the roaring fire and 20 ft. Christmas tree.   We enjoyed cucumber and egg sandwiches, cream puffs and eclairs as we chatted and sipped Christmas tea.  As other guests departed, we lingered.  We poured more tea.  We sipped it slowly.   As we sat alone in the grand room, our teapot empty, I began to gather my things.  Larissa reached for her teacup, smiled and said, “Mama…just one last sip of tea.”

To see our first annual Christmas Tea, click here.  December 19th is the last day for Christmas Tea with seatings at 12 noon and again at 3 p.m.  Reservations are required.

Well, I just HAD to choose and how could I resist?…today, this super sweet family, fellow Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) members and skiers won out over shoveling!  Bozemanites, Wendy & John bid on and WON my family portraiture session donation to include a 20×30 fine art canvas print at last December’s Black Tie and Blue Jeans BSF fundraising event at Bozeman’s Riverside Country Club and boy, did we pull out all the stops (including mom picking the kids up early from school) to get this session in just hours before the first big winter storm hit!

The temps were dropping fast and it was so windy in Sypes Canyon that the sisters’ jacket hoods kept blowing off  their heads, but they held on to them!  Evan (14), Jenna (9) and Ashley (8) were troopers, smiling through it all.   And, as luck would have it, the storm brought enough snow to allow Bridger Bowl to open early on Thanksgiving weekend and that makes a lot of us SNOW HAPPY!

Susan & Ed, I had a ton of fun spending a sunny summer morning with your beautiful family.  Congratulations on your 50th and many, many more!

50 years of love and togetherness, 3 children and 8 grandchildren later…

Here are a few more from our session…

A few days later, my husband and I returned to the scene of this session AND my lost earring, metal detector in hand combing every inch of the gravel and grass when along came friendly Chico Maintenance Man, Amos who found it within minutes!!!  Just like that!  Thanks again, Amos!

There were nothing but happy smiles from this group who’d been enjoying hiking in the park daily, so this shot of the family with the mighty Yellowstone River meandering through in the background is the perfect memento of this occasion.  There were sooooo many photos to blog, I decided to use my new “Mr. Big” Canvas Collage to post the highlights!  The canvas measures 24×36 and is just tons of fun to look at.

These more intimate family groupings below were created using my “Larger than Life” canvas templates.  Also a fun way to keep the memory alive!

Many thanks to Katie, who hired me for this event and to the entire T-M family who were awesome to work with.  Happy Birthday, Marilyn!!!