ST. REGIS - They laid Jerry Parrick to rest in a snowstorm Monday, conditions all too similar to those that led to his death. More than a hundred volunteer firefighters from as far away as Spokane and Columbus were among the 250 people who crept into town on winter-slickened highways to pay tribute to Parrick. Sherrell Christensen, an emergency medical technician who served with Parrick in the West End Volunteer Fire Department, hoped there would be no emergency calls during the 30-minute memorial service inside the St. Regis High School gym.

FRENCHTOWN - It’s snowing in Frenchtown. Chunky flakes fall like a billion tiny parachutes outside the windows of the Frenchtown Club while Jimmy Buffett’s “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” plays. Tom Erving tends bar as if he’s done it for years. He has drinks waiting for customers before they even sit down, and he leans over the bar and talks to them like he’s genuinely interested in what they have to say.

A white Christmas means a green holiday season for western Montana ski areas, many of which are reporting a near record number of visitors over the weekend. At Whitefish Mountain Resort, on-mountain accommodations are fully booked, Discovery Ski Area had record-breaking daily revenue over the weekend and Snowbowl has been humming along with steady, big-number crowds. Despite the economic woes - or because of the concerns - skiers are flocking to the slopes.

Dave Beck called it his “Welcome to Montana moment.”

It was the week of Thanksgiving 2000, when his daughter brought home a note asking all the kids to dress up like pilgrims and Indians the day before the holiday.

“What happens when the teacher points to someone with a paper vest and turkey feathers and says, ‘You look like a real Indian?' ” Beck asked. “My daughter dresses up like an Indian every day.”

Michele Landquist is ready to hit the ground running. What she wasn't prepared for when she won a seat on the Missoula County commission in November was the starting line moving up.

“The only thing that took me by surprise was how many different entities would like to get to know me and have some time with me prior to me actually taking office,” Landquist said Monday after taking the oath of office in the Missoula County Courthouse annex.

Missoula is never too quick to give Bozeman its props, but when it comes to ice climbing, Cat Country has a leg up.

That’s a sole function of the proximity of Hyalite Canyon, Montana’s ice Mecca.

“It’s my new favorite,” said Missoula climber Brett Klaassen Van Oorschot, who spent a recent weekend at the Ice Fest in Hyalite. “There’s just so much to do there, it’s incredible.”

“Kaylin, come on,” said Dave Mihalic to one of the young Civil Air Patrol cadets. “Let's go do the special one.” Kaylin Smith, 13, was on a special assignment - to uncover the gravestone of Steven Slusher, a decorated combat medic who died in 1969. The flat marker in the far corner of the cemetery was hidden beneath 2 inches of snow. Once uncovered, Smith laid a wreath on the ground next to the stone with a red ribbon directly at the top.

Elvis has not left the building. Not yet, anyway. The black tiger-striped kitten is just one of 38 cats and kittens currently in residence at the AniMeals warehouse, awaiting a new home as part of a new rescue and adoption collaboration between AniMeals and Missoula City-County Animal Control. “With this phenomenon where there is no local kitten season anymore, our shelters are just overrun with cats,” said AniMeals founder Karyn Moltzen.

A crackling bonfire and a hot cup of cocoa greet all who seek a Christmas tree at the Copenhaver family’s 12-acre plantation in the heart of Missoula. This is the place for those who don’t have time to wander the woods for the perfect specimen, but aren’t interested in the grocery store parking lot variety. There’s even homemade cookies to snack on before or after the holiday tree hunt.

Pound Cake, caught up in all the fanfare, missed her cue to go on.

But the 7-week-old roly-poly ball of fur and sweetness smiled anyway. She had stolen the show.

On Wednesday, the Humane Society of Western Montana held its first dog show during halftime at a Lady Griz game in Dahlberg Arena. The show is designed to dispel the myth that animals at the shelter are ill behaved.