5th Day of Christmas - Bella's First Fish, Projects, Truck Shopping

Krista's goal was sister time with Stacia today. She got up bright and early and took Nolan to work so she could have the car.  Stacia opted for hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls. I suggested Sophia's Cafe and off they went.  They made it early enough to score a roll, this is often not the case. 

Alex, Michael and I headed to Anchorage.

 BreAnne, who has been trained well in the art of blog contributions, sent this photo. 🐽

Is Bella not the cutest little fisher-woman you've seen? 

Izaak was heading out to take Bella on her first ice-fishing/fishing adventure. She was so excited. (We entertained thoughts of stopping at the lake on our way back to the Valley, but they'd limited and left long before we reached the lake).

Meanwhile, in Anchorage, Michael checked out a truck, test drove it, found many points of common ground with the seller, and told him we'd get back to him to take it to a mechanic. We aren't sure if the mechanic will be open on Monday. It may have to wait until Wednesday, the seller understands about businesses and banks being closed until Wednesday.

Air Force Blue

Alex suggested Panda Express, a favorite with the Gherkins. It was nice to be out and about with Alex.  We began to get photos from Josiah while we were at lunch. Izaak sent some later. I have permission to share.

 Such fun!  

Note the auger beside Bella (Grand #1)

Bella's first fish! Look at her! Our little Alaskan. 

Note the size of her catch

A 20 second clip of her catch 

Uncle Cy with Bella and her catch 

Again   - check out the size of her catch

Evidently, Uncle and Daddy, have begun her education on how to get a good fish story. ALWAYS get your picture taken with the biggest catch of the day. 🐽

Josiah said they limited in 34 minutes.  They are catching lake bound King Salmon - about the size of trout? Most are 10 - 12 inches. 

We discovered a recent accident when we stopped for mail. We noted people inside, and went to help. All were fine and someone was on the way to pull them out. They were buried HARD - we weren't going to get them out. 

Sober reminder to drive with care in the winter

 All the kids were were home when we arrived.  Nolan and Krista are reading. The girls bought a couple of pieces of baklava to share.  They had gone shopping at thrift stores to find elements for the Gherkins Annual Gingerbread competition. Stacia is working on projects. They are turning out cute and I'll show more photos when I can. We began the week with 9 projects to complete between us. Four are done - 2 are nearing finish.

Stacia has a blister from cutting. I didn't know that was a thing. 

Michael has spent the afternoon working on more sermon prep. I am finishing up, "The Prodigal Prophet." I decided to order it rather than trying to get everything out of it in one read.  We are finally, finally, nearing the end of left-overs.  Just in time for New Year's Eve dinner. I'm going to try hard NOT to have a lot of left-overs.

4th Day of Christmas - Benny's Firsts and More

After yesterday's project fail, Stacia and I knew we had to call in a lifeline. Stacia reminded me Jacque had said to call if we ever needed sewing help. We called,  and Jacque spent five HOURS with us. She helped us figure out the pattern. Hint: They print directions on both sides. 🐽

Stacia and Jacque

 I thought she'd stay to help us figure out the directions, and leave us on our own, but she STAYED.  I loved that she told Stacia what to do and then watched STACIA do it, rather than jumping in to do it herself. It was a very beneficial lesson - though she doesn't do lessons. 😉😊😏

Stacia finished one of her projects - I won't show you yet - it's a Christmas secret. She laid out another, cut it out and began sewing. I worked on one of my projects beside her, mine doesn't require a pattern. I love having the table big enough for both of us to sew side by side. When our eyes were going blurry, and our brains were fuzzy, we laid the projects aside for another day.

Our time with Jacque  was the essence of church community. We are blessed.

 At some point during the  sewing, Arielle invited Krista to play in the yard with their family.

Krista (standing) Arielle, Cory and Benny (in front)

Benny's first time sledding and he wasn't loving it! 

They've all gone crazy! 

What is THAT?????

Never again, guys, never.again! 

THIS is how I prefer to travel

Krista got in on the fun

Krista may give Arielle a run for the wipe out Queen title

Krista is working to get individual time with each of her siblings while she is home. She took Arielle and Benny to DQ for Benny's first experience in the play land. This post should be titled Benny's Firsts.....

Now THIS is MUCH better than that cold ride....

Benny offered his opinions on Gramps' car shopping

Wow! Gramps, this is the one! 

We were too tired for games tonight. We forgot the scavenger gift hunt. Arielle loaned us "Christopher Robin." We enjoyed the movie. Thus ends the 4th Day of Christmas. 

3rd Day of Christmas - Projects?

We planned for today to be a restful day.  

Michael continued to look for cars. We want to pay cash. We've set aside a certain amount for the purchase; we'll see what we find.  We want a car which will seat 6. It would be much more convenient when we have out of state guests.  We need a truck -  we are doing a lot of hauling of things now that we live at Wibbly Wobbly Acres. 🐔🐇🐾

The search starts online

The Jeep we have isn't doing as well as we'd hoped. We had to do significant work on it this summer and it looks like it is heading for another significant outlay of money within a year. I love the JEEP - but it may soon be the car the kids learn to drive on. There's a novel idea - learn to drive on something other than a 15 passenger van. 🐽

An extended cab truck seemed like the ideal match for us. UNTIL we considered if we want it to last as long as our last "newer" car (13 years before we downsized), we need to consider one which is convenient for elderly folks to get in and out of, and one  I can get a wheelchair into and out of, if that time comes.....and so we continue to ponder. Exciting times. Michael likes to comparison shop, and he likes a budget. He's happy to look. 

I've been reading this devotional lately and am happy to have lots of quiet time to dig into it a bit deeper. The devo takes a verse/passage a day and does a Greek word study which leads to application. 

Krista spent the afternoon with Bre and had dinner with BreZaak.  Stacia and I determined to work on some projects. Um....as I posted on Facebook earlier....I wasn't too concerned when I flunked home ec. though my teacher TOLD me this was a life skill I would want to know "someday." That day would be today.

We took some classes last year - but this pattern confused us. We thought Krista would be able to help us, but it turns out she sews without patterns. WHAT? She looks at what she wants and just does it. That's how she did advance math too! 😂 We laughed when it was pointed out we shouldn't cut the pattern on top of the material. All's well. We've called in a lifeline and will have help tomorrow to figure out the pattern and be sure we know what to do. Once we figure it out once, we should be able to figure out the others!

We set this project aside and pulled out another couple of sewing projects. Which turned out cute. I can't show you as they're gifts.

After a dinner of leftovers (will they EVER end?), we were ready for the evening's Christmas Gift Scavenger Hunt.

Riddle/Clue: Under the water; above the ground

Riddle Solution and Gift: They figured this out fairly quickly. 

The family gift for the night is a new game: 221b Baker Street. We set up it up immediately, and played a round. They said it would take an hour and a half to solve a mystery. We did it in 25 minutes. I think our viewing of  Monk, Colombo, and Father Brown, finally paid off.  This may be a game we all enjoy....it's strategy, and yet understandable to Stacia and I, and it DOESN'T take HOURS and DAYS to play. 😔😜😕

We ended the night with a nice conversation with Krista. We love school breaks!

2nd Day of Christmas - Christmas Miracle

It's a Christmas miracle. If all goes as planned, I will actually PUBLISH this blog post on the day it was lived. ::snort::

After the past four weeks of Advent - I find my heart, soul, and spirit READY to celebrate Christmas for the next 11 days. We planned to have a quiet down day.....

We began setting up a game of Dominion. This is Nolan's last day off work.

Josiah called. He discovered his bank is closed due to structural damage in the quake. He was driving out to the Valley to go to the bank and stop at the Fish and Game in Palmer. Would we like to meet him for lunch at the Noisy Goose? YES - we don't go here often and I like the veggie options.

Josiah and Krista from toddler-hood through high school everyone thought
they were twins. Krista is older. 

My boyfriend 😉

 Krista went with Josiah to run his errands. We are learning about the Moose Federation and moose teams - but that's another blog.

Michael and I got home and found an eagle circling the chicken yard. Rosie likes to go out on her own - she's a Cochin and is fluffier and sturdier than our other breeds. She has feathers on her legs and feet and hardly any comb. She handles the cold better than they do.  She'd also be a prize catch for the eagles.  We shuffled her inside and shut the door.

When Josiah and Krista arrived, these five jumped into a game of Dominion. We have so many expansion packs now, and the game moves so fast, that Stacia and I usually opt out.

Stacia and I planned to work on a project she wants done before the family gift exchange on NYE. One thing led to another and we put the project off for tomorrow.....

Arielle and Stacia have been working on the sledding run in our yard. They built a starting ramp and packed down snow earlier....then it snowed again. They went out to start packing it down again....and to see if they could sled on it.

Arielle wins the wipe-out award! 

With Dominion over (Michael won),  the other Gherkins went outside to help Stacia and Arielle. There is nothing better than a big brother to get projects moving along. They built the starting ramp higher, shoveled and packed down the run, built side walls along the run, and sprayed it down with water. It will run across the side of the yard from the front to potentially the garden or woods. I can't wait for bonfires, hot chocolate and an icy sled run. It's coming.

We didn't buy sleds in time. They are all sold out. I suspect everyone else knew with Christmas break this would be the perfect time for sledding - we were slow to realize this.  We haven't gone out to the hills we planned on as we're down to one sled. This will provide a bit of solace until the stores restock sleds. Surely they'll do that after Christmas. There is still a lot of winter left. We may make a few.  Or I may have to pull down the sled I had as a toddler. 😁🐽😂

The wood-stove is amazingly wonderful after an hour in the cold. They got inside just in time for us to watch tonight's Spurs game against the Denver Nuggets. This was fairly dangerous. We've noted whenever Josiah and I watch a game TOGETHER they lose in the 4th quarter. THEY WON - another Christmas miracle? The blanket-covered lump in the photo is Yuuki.

Josiah headed back to Eagle River after the game and the rest of us did our first Christmas Scavenger Gift Hunt. 

Riddle/Clue: Forgotten Hooks

I missed this last year as I was in Oregon for quite a bit of Advent. I had forgotten the difference in personalities amongst the Gherkins. These two took off hunting for places where they might find command hooks or fishing hooks. Krista joined them. 

Nolan sat alone in the living room. I was disappointed to think he was "adulting" and would be too old for the fun this year. HOWEVER, I was wrong. He was thinking. As they ran from spot to spot he eventually got up, walked to the exact hiding spot, found the gift, indicated that to us and waited for the others to find it.

Riddle Solution: In the back of this entry closet, there are coat hooks....behind the coats. We really aren't sure how this was used in the past. I suspect, lots of little kids and no long coats or snow pants to hide the hooks....it was a great place to hang tonight's gift.

Gift: Woodlawn DVD 

It's not 2 Turtle Doves, but it will do! 😜😊😃

We didn't feel like watching a movie. We played, ::drum roll::: FARKLE!  This is all I NEED to say....this is one of my rolls. 🎲🎲🎲

I won. 

Nolan has gone to bed; he works bright and early tomorrow. Alex opted for personal time. Michael talked Krista and Stacia into playing Dominion. She's hanging in there - the pace is slower tonight.

 I am beside them at the table. I've sorted and edited photos, and blogged.....