"Stacia's" Sledding Hill

All Stacia asked for was a place with snow like Misawa, Japan. We assured her there would be snow in Alaska. Alas, there hasn't been much snow this year in the valley. We've had several strangely warm snaps (high 30's and 40's) while the rest of America was having abnormally cold weather. We've had all the snow melt off several times.  This is a bummer as it's hard to do things like skiing, ice fishing, sledding and snow machining without a good layer of snow.

The kids had planned to sled down the side of the yard. The snow was powdery and kept disappearing. Stacia spent a day building a "ramp" of snow. She thought this would give an extra "push" at the start of the ride....then we had one of those warm days and things melted. Then we had a cold day which resulted in a layer of ice over the snow (and roads too).

Stacia is the most devoted to sledding. She discovered that the hill was FAST when the snow was a bit wetter and covered in ice. She even got me to try it. They were stopping at the deck, now they zip across the yard, around the septic pipe, and either into the pasture or into the fire ring.

Alex came out and enjoyed the icy sledding hill 

Here's a clip. 

All the photos I took of Stacia were blurry. We'll try for more.

Note - I received a text from Stacia, on the 19th, while in Anchorage, "We just had a huge sledding crash but nobody is mortally injured." Seems they hit the wire of the electric fence going full speed. The wire will be put down for the rest of the winter.

2017 Gingerbread Competition Winner

We have a winner! Facebook Poll seems the way to go. There were 95 votes and the winners took 69% of the vote.

Mr Gingerbread Man will be going home with :::drum roll::::: The BOYS team this year!  Last year he drove RV,s went to the CA coast, OR, CO, Mexico, moved to Alaska and welcomed new grand gherkins. I look forward to following his exploits this year.

Now that the voting is over, I can share photos of the works in progress. For pictures of the finished product, click here. 

It is only right to mention the girls had some extra challenges this year. First, their team has shrunk. Mom, Lorri and even Mom G had been past participants and weren't here this year. Seconly, they had some darling two-legged challenges this year.  At any given time someone was off feeding a baby, or calming a baby....but such lovely distractions. I was impressed with what they got done. They opted not to mix the teams. LOL

Bennie's first New Years Eve 

Bella was the cutest little distraction. She calmly ate the snowmen as fast as Arielle made them. LOL

Who? ME? 

Psst - Did it make a difference not to know which team made which village? I don't know.....

For more gingerbread readings - click the label in the sidebar and check out the past winners.

Past year's competitions and winners:
2013 Competition - Men won with their Town square complete with a clock tower.

2014 Competition - Women won with their sweet Chapel; Men's Night Before Christmas disqualified them according to judge Michael.

2015 Competition - Women won with Mad Hatter's Tea Party over the Men's rendition of Santa's Village.

2016  Competition - Women won with their  "Portrait of  2016."

2017 Competition - Men won with their "Alaskan Getaway" - this was inspired by their favorite hike/fishing getaway - Redshirt. Note the red shirt in the canoe. 

ICE

As soon as the kids built their snow ramp - things warmed up again.....we woke this a.m. to a huge ice rink in our driveway again. 

Trying to break some of it up

Not enough ice melt to do the job....

Winter Day

My arms and heart are full! What sweet little ones to love on! 

Gideon, Gemma, Bennett

Auntie Stacia loves time with Gideon too

Stacia built the little ramp here in hopes of getting a bit more of a nudge down the hill. We need more snow. 

But it worked.....not bad for fun in the yard

I thought firs lasted forever...this big one bit the dust back in the woods. 

Crime Scene Investigations

I'm not totally sure when this happened - but I wanted to do a back to school blog and this is the day we started back, so I'll put it here. LOL  I'm not happy with how the last semester has gone. Our work has not been up to what I expect - but we have gotten through it. Considering we moved and started late, Michael and I are gone at therapy 3x a week and I was in Oregon for three weeks - it's some kind of miracle for us to have been ready to turn our second quarter work samples and mid-year grades! BUT WE DID - and we turned them in early! Woot!

We have plans to be able to slow down the rest of the year...no more big breaks until May, when Nolan graduates. 

I get STUCK on science experiments. Michael agreed to take over this one with Stacia. We are working through some forensic science. One of our books is Crime Scene Investigations.   Here they talked about comparing prints...

The snow made it difficult to see what Michael wanted her to see. The next thing I knew they were making casts in Plaster of Paris and she was determining which print went with which shoe. I didn't get photos of that - thought I had.

School and Goodbyes

School has started again for Arielle and Cory. 

Auntie Krista is more than happy to keep an eye on Bennett for them. 

Cory and Arielle graciously agreed to drive with us to Anchorage. We met Jamin, and JaRissa at Panda Express and had dinner. Then, Stacia went home with CoRielle, and we took Krista to the airport. She caught the red-eye flight back to Virginia. She'll have a couple of weeks of work and break left and then begin a new semester at Liberty.

It is ENOUGH to have eight of the Gherkins in "seeing" distance. I am content. BUT it will probably always be hard to say goodbye to a Gherkin who isn't nearby. We had a great visit with Krista. We look forward to more.

2017 Annual Gherkins Gingerbread Competition

The most anticipated New Year's Eve activity around our home is the Annual Gherkins Gingerbread Competition. This year was no different.

The prize of this competition is the right to host this  "Gingerbread Gherkin" for 2018. The winners will take photos of his adventures, mail him to one another and I'll post him on the blog and on our Courageous Joy Facebook page. He'll rejoin us next New Year's Eve. This year Gingerbread Gherkin went to CA, CO, Mexico and places in between. He planted trees, helped pack houses, played with kids in Mexico, and moved to Alaska. He's looking forward to another full year.

Stacia and Nolan served as team captains again this year. Each team was provided the same gingerbread kit, spatulas, bowls, spoons, and $20 to shop for anything else they may want. Each team also got a challenge item or two.

We have noted that most of the contestants friends will vote on Facebook and not on a blog link.....so official this year will take place on our Facebook Page - Courageous Joy.

To keep everything scrupulously unbiased, we will no longer designate "Girls Team" and "Boys Team" until after a winner is declared. Entries are presented in alphabetical order.

Team A presents "An Alaskan Getaway". In this entry a Gherkin favorite getaway is recreated with gingerbread, frosting and graham crackers. 

Nestled around the lake is a Forest Service cabin and outhouse. 

Note the smoke from the chimney

Note the campfire and wood pile

A canoe on the lake - little figure is wearing a red shirt

 Forest trail dusted with snow

Note the dock for canoes

Team B presents us with "The Snowman's Lodge."  A winter wonderland we'd love to visit.

Note the hanging snowflake mobile

Candycanes make up the fence and ladder

Note Santa's Slide....

Perimeter fence - igloo and snowmen in the foreground

I'm running late on posting this and promised to do it TONIGHT. The rush/ Various ones would like to take the Gingerbread Gherkin on adventures.  The poll is pinned to the TOP of the  Courageous Joy Facebook page; voting ends Friday, 12 Jan at 9:00 p.m. AKST.


Past year's competitions and winners:
2013 Competition - Men won with their Town square complete with a clock tower.

2014 Competition - Women won with their sweet Chapel; Men's Night Before Christmas disqualified them according to judge Michael.

2015 Competition - Women won with Mad Hatter's Tea Party over the Men's rendition of Santa's Village.

2016  Competition - Women won with their  "Portrait of  2016."