snow hooves! :-D so I read that reindeers would come flying by on December 10th in Middelburg, capital of our province, approx. 5 km's from here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middelburg ) and thought PHOTOGRAPH PHOTOGRAPH .......... ;-D we call them 'rendieren' in dutch (subtitling: 'run-animals') fun fun ...? what a bummer that was! taking pics wasn't that easy. they were either running around or standing still surrounded by people. town was less crowded than on a 'normal' saturday (people were iceskating on the market in front of the city hall), yet still impossible to 'shoot' from a distance. yet the biggest let-down... Blitzen girl didn't look too happy I felt sorry for her looks like her hooves could use a trim (???) dunno about her hind legs (??) and her antlers were damaged and bloody their tack didn't fit, was dirty and didn't look good from certain angles they were accompanied by 2 people, covered in fur and the remains of a fox heard from them that it was 'mating season' for Rudolph who was headbanging about anything and anyone people that is, not Blitzen LOL the man had great difficulty holding him and that was FUN!!! ;-D and how cute and soft (!!!) they may be, those antlers are not and they are huge reindeers were very sweet & lovable tho all in all, loved to make the acquaintance, but 'it' didn't feel good!!! obviously they were designed to have snow under their feet and not to be rented out (lol @ Neto cuz of his comment ;-)) TYallSM!!! :-D commenting high on the priority list!!! have to finish some 'orders' first, that need to be send within 2? hours, like 'this year' -and which I have been postponing- ;-) (earlier had to shut down the comp. cuz of thunder storms)