Spanish Treasure, and Christmas in Old Europe

Almost done with this series of posts--just one left after these two.

I love the photos from the "Spanish Treasure" Christmas Revels. They really make me wish I'd been in it!

Now, off we go to Eastern Europe, to the Balkans, with an enormous and elegant clock created just for our Empress, and a story centered around what would happen if we really could stop time.

Oh, I gotta tell you: The "monsters" are called Kukeri, and the are traditional to the area, in many iterations. Locals don them, and wander the streets. Again, they were created by Barbara Millikan, creature-creator supreme. You can spot Barb posing with three of them in the bottom left photo in the collage.