Christmas Sunday

 For the first time in several weeks, I was able to go to church.  It seems I was home because GG was sick. Then the girls were sick. Maybe it's only been 2 weeks - feels like longer. LOL Christmas Sunday is a great Sunday to show up at church. We came home laden with wonderful tokens of friendship and community...cards, photos, soup cozies (not sure what they're called), candy, fuzzy socks, sourdough bread...AND it was good to worship in community again. 

Michael LOVES a specific restaurant in our town. They have recently been closed on Sundays and Mondays due to manning. They were open this week and so there was no discussion needed about Sunday lunch options. We headed over for calzones. It was just the 5 of us today. Stacia ended up sitting with the sun in her face. She amused us by discovering all the floaties in the air around us. She was truly disgusted to think that it's always there, but unseen.  That'll preach. 

We had timed things to be able to pick up a grocery order for BreZaak and drop it off before drove back out to our place. Unfortunately, Freddies was running way behind. Everyone went home. I decided I'd take the hour to do some Christmas stocking shopping for the girls.  The order was delayed another hour. I ended up not getting home until after 4:30 p.m. I did get most everything I wanted for the girl's Christmas Stockings. We don't do our household exchange until January 6th, and our family gift exchange is on NYE...so the focus is simply on filling those stockings, prepping for our Christmas Adam Tea, and a rousing Jesus Birthday Party. 

Please do pray for BreZaak's family. As of yesterday, Bre is the only one left standing. Even little Trudy has the flu. Izaak is on the mend so the upward journey to health has begun. Little Trudy is a month old, there is nothing sadder than a sick baby. 

Look at the fun going on in Eagle River today. I LOVE that Noah is expected in January - just what one needs to break up winter blahs around here. It's getting REAL when the furniture gets set up. It's a darling room - I love the comforter.  Thanks to Larissa for sending the photos. 

📷by Larissa

📷by Larissa

See the glider? I was moved to tears when I considered all the hours of cuddling and bonding which will happen in that sweet spot.  The baby years are HARD, but those years are amazing as well. We're all excited for our little miracle, Noah's, arrival. 

📷by Larissa

You know...the fact that Christmas is a week away has jumped out at me. I spent a week with BreZaak's family after Trudy arrived, everyone was sick for a week, and I lost another week and a half due to the snowstorm. This IS one way to make winter go by fast! 

A Great Saturday

📷by Larissa 

The most exciting event today may well be Larissa and Jared attending childbirth classes. January is so near! I am still bummed we had to postpone the family shower we had planned for JaRissa and Noah due to illness. Larissa is so near giving birth we will do all we can to keep germs far from her....maybe we'll have to give them the gifts before the shower. LOL 

All those younger siblings paid off for Jared today as his mad child-tending skills came back. LOL 

📷by Larissa 

📷by Larissa 

The girls and I went thrifting today. It was a very profitable day. Stacia found a great coat for me. Mine was a thrift store find 5 years ago and the zipper broke. I have been looking at retail stores but refuse to pay the exorbitant price for a coat. I've also been checking thrift stores and haven't found anything. She found one that is warm, zips AND snaps (a backup plan for future use), has big pockets and I like it - $15.  Every year I have a little gift I give the girls at our Christmas Adam Tea.  This year I'm trying very hard to stay in a budget and pare back spending....and so I did not want to spend the $350 I spent last year on the gifts....I found all I needed at thrift stores. I found the same thing in two DIFFERENT thrift stores. LOL I spent $15. I also bought a verity of containers I need for another gift I plan to work on.... Allie found a sweater, jeans and a jacket. Stacia found a jacket she's been looking for for months. 

Look at all the snow in town. If WE have a hard time figuring out where to put it all - the task is nearly impossible in a city neighborhood.  You can see the girl's (and their families) homes are about snowed under. LOL 

Happy Anniversary to CoRielle

This is a SPLIT level house and look how far up the steps and door frame the snow has gotten. 

Michael took Stacia out for some winter driving education. They brought pizza home for dinner. I harvested a batch of kombucha and started the next batch fermenting. The last batch I made was simply the starter tea, peach syrup and home canned apple juice. Everyone liked it, Michael mentioned missing the red juices. The rest of us really liked this...so I made another batch and added pomegranate juice to the mix this time. We are making a gallon at a time rather than 2 gal at a time and that is working well. 

We settled in to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and DryBar comedy skits. 

Yes, I KNOW she's on the wrong side - I 
wanted it for the photo. 

Friday!

I played around with a recipe and created these. They are a hit. They are NOT sugar free.  They are going to our Bahai neighbor who acts more Christ-like than many Christians. Oops - did I say THAT???? I need to get them delivered BEFORE many more are eaten.  I need to buy more candy and make some variations for our Christmas Adam Tea and our Christmas Day Jesus party.  I think I could use Snickers or Thin Mints as well as Reeses.... 

Six Sisters No Bake Reese Fudge Bar - sorta 

Since some will wonder if I only deliver to those who are friendly. NO. BUT...we've taken things around since we moved here to our neighbors (we don't live on a typical city block). I had noted some oddities in response. Michael mentioned last time he thought there was a bit of hostility...so we will not take goodies around to neighbors who seem to read it as a hostile takeover attempt. We will deliver to those two or three who seem comfortable with the idea of neighbors being neighborly... We'll think of new ways to be friendly to those who seem not to want one on their property. LOL In what I think may be a GOD THING...the one hostile got a new dog and their dog loves to run away to our yard...so we get to smile, retrieve the dog and exchange a bit of good cheer when the dog breaks away. Who knows? 

Michael and I, the girls, Alex and GG all went to Anchorage to watch the new Avatar movie. It was an end of the year appreciation Jamin hosted for all his realty clients. Our thought was a free movie, dinner and drive through lights at ACF in Eagle River.  It was fun to see Jamin and CoRielle and boys at the movie. That is a LONG movie. We were getting out at 7:40 p.m. and since Alex had to be up at 0400....we opted to skip dinner and lights. We came home and Alex went downstairs. GG had some dinner. The girls and I had hot drinks and visited a bit, and we called it a night. 

The drive was beautiful. We only saw on wreck. Maybe folks are getting their winter driving skills honed. 

Thanks, again Jamin, for the night at the movies. We loved it. 

An Unexpected Visit

We did NOT get another 2 feet of snow overnight. We DID get at least another foot of snow. That makes at least 4 feet of snow (I think more like 4 1/2) in the last 10 days. That's a whole lotta pretty.  I looked out the window and thought, "Oh, we didn't get new snow." I opened the door and realized we did. The wind has also been blowing it around. These photos were taken about 8:45 a.m. 

Do I really need out? 

Our weather station on the back deck

We knew the deck had to be a priority today. We've been trying to keep the driveway and walkways clear...but the deck is getting heavy enough we need to deal with it.

I had just gotten Dad settled with his breakfast and was in the process of frying my eggs when the doorbell rang. I thought it was UPS and they'd be gone when I got to the door, so I didn't rush. THERE WERE PEOPLE at the door! Angels come to help dig us out! Michael and Alex spent 3 hours shoveling down to the foundation in the driveway last night....  Michael's back does not like the shoveling. I nearly cried when I saw these angels. Arielle brought the boys in to get their snow gear on, Cory started shoveling. 

Danny, Arielle, Little Buddy, Benny in the background

I scarfed down my eggs and joined them. Our first endeavor was to find GG's newspaper. Benny and I set out...it wasn't delivered today...but we knew we'd better check. 

Benny searches for GG's paper

 Our next stop was the compost heap and then on to water and feed the Rabbit and the Chickens. The compost bin is now FULL of snow. I think I'll need to stop composting until we get some of the snow removed. 

Everyone helped! Cory dug out the garbage can so I could put a bag in. Who are we kidding? He did the bulk of our driveway, around cars...he's a champ. 

Arielle shoveled off GG's ramp so we can get him out and then she helped with the driveway. 

Benny told me he was going to shovel out Stacia's car "So she can go places."

He was satisfied when he could see the "Vibe."  LOL 

Danny and Little Buddy pretty much wandered around and messed with snow. 

Stacia and Benny tackled the back deck. 

Danny remembers the best part of shoveling snow....

My plans changed from helping to shovel, to entertaining the two year olds. I love this job. It worked well. 

Bachan, Danny & Little Buddy 📷by Arielle 

"Bachan! I'm slipping."

As we closed in on the 2nd hour of outside work, the boys wanted a break. We came inside to have hot chocolate and snacks. Benny left the deck to join us when he saw what was shaping up. He wanted a real teacup. And the 2 year olds were NOT about to have a SIPPY cup when Benny had a real teacup.  I was glad I had the melamine teacups to give each boy their own REAL teacup.  I originally bought these to give away to granddaughters at our Christmas Adam tea parties... They were hard to find so I bought extra when I ordered Annie's to have for future granddaughters.  I'm thinking I need to keep some HERE for tea parties. I'll have to try to find them again. 

Hot Chocolate Party 

Stacia had some frozen cookie dough in the freezer which I pulled out to bake a dozen quick cookies. It was great fun. Danny was happy to share with Cory when he came inside. 

It was a blessing to Michael to be able to ice his back and not worry about the snowfall from last night. The forecast shows a break from snow for a week and a return to COLD temps. We have had over 4 feet of snow fall in the last 10 days. 

We clear this after each big storm and couldn't imagine needing more than 15 inches. Michael says he's going to remark it. LOL The black mark you see about a 1/3 of the way up is the 15-inch mark. 

I was asked if I could meet at 3 Bears with a couple more dozen eggs. Stacia and I were happy for the outing. I was happy Cory had dug out the van this a.m.  Look at the snow drifts at the side of the car - it was cleared on Tuesday. LOL 

I drove these winter roads like a BOSS! I'm not in the Philippines now! LOL 

I like to get photos of this truck in a field near us. One can barely make out the truck for all the snow today. LOL 

We had a good laugh at Alex's truck...it almost looks like a truck of snow on top of his truck. LOL 

It's been a lot of mess, and I know kids need to get back to school, but it's been kind of fun too...record breaking snow. I'm glad we are here. 

The Season of Lights

The girls both celebrate significant milestones today. Allie has submitted her last assignment for her first semester in college! As important as showing herself she can manage the class load, she's also learned to balance work, serving at church and personal down time. Great job. 

Stacia took her final test in the last Genki Book (Japanese language series) and she scored 100%! She'll begin a new curriculum in January. Her classes in Japanese language, culture, comparative religions take on new significance as she does the next thing on her journey to being a career missionary in Japan. Take the next small step...a life lesson we all do well to remember. Way to go, Stacia! 

And I have no picture to commemorate the day - should have saved one from yesterday. LOL They spent the afternoon watching Sherlock Holmes. 

We've had a steady, gentle, beautiful snow fall all day. Michael and Alex spent another 3 hours shoveling off the snow which accumulated in the past 24 hours. 

The dark, winter days are upon us...but seriously, check out all the white!!! When the storms pass, we'll have stars, moon and northern lights reflecting on all the snow... We were losing 5 min of sunlight a day. Suddenly, I realized this week that the sun was NOT rising at 8:30 a.m.  I was finding it HARD to get up at 0500 and slept in until 7 on several mornings. I checked. Today, the sun will come up at 10:41 a.m. and go down at 2:33 p.m. We are marching towards the darkest day of the year - December 21st and then it will slowly begin adding light each day. I love the seasons....

Rather than think of this as the "dark season," I choose to make it the season of LIGHTS in our home. These lights will stay up until spring, and sufficient sunshine arrives. 

Entry - with the tree around he corner

Lights on our house (inside and outside) will shine until spring and candles can now glow nicely in the windows. I miss the candles in the summer. They shine much brighter now.  I'll need to get a better photo of the house lit up. 

Mom Mary's canning jars on my kitchen window ledge are filled with lights and shine so nicely on these mornings. 

We're learning to embrace each season for what it is...the joys and the challenges. We do have family members who LIKE the winters up here much more than the summers! 

And, I do take copious amounts of Vitamin D during the winter....

All these photos were taken between 8:30 - 8:40 a.m. 

Papa is a GREAT Distraction

Into each young family's life come days when a bit of distraction is welcomed. I suggested to Michael this may be a day when Arielle would welcome a bit of Bachan AND PAPA distraction. We checked with Arielle, and she agreed she would love us to drop by.  Just as they were having an after-nap snack, we popped into the arctic entry. I brought Bachan's Basket (Zbars, Larabars, fruit snacks, a stuffed potato to play hot potato) and the boys were happy to see me. The REAL excitement, however, began when they realized I also brought PAPA.  Benny got so excited he ran and put on his Christmas suit! 

See the "potato" flying back and forth 

Little Buddy was happy to snuggle with Michael 

We weren't sure having us drop in visit would be helpful, but if nothing else we let Arielle know, "We see you. You've got this. We believe you rock motherhood." 

I do love my van. It does a GREAT job on the snow and ice. 

Yeah - snow. O.K. I get it. We live in Alaska. Snow is not a surprise. BUT, y'all it dumped two feet in a 24-hour storm, and then a day later 12 inches in 12 hours and it continued to snow all Monday. It was nice not to have new snow today. Poor Michael's back is complaining MIGHTILY about all the shoveling and plowing. I appreciate him running to play with grands when his back was sore. 

The rest of day was simply a lazy winter day. The girls worked on school interspersed with hot chocolate breaks. Stacia IS doing school, Allie does school at the table, so I snap her in the act more often. 

Allie & Stacia

Looking at this picture of Stacia reminds me of the elderly gentleman at the mall in Anchorage who was SURE she was Irish, "With your orange hair and green eyes!" We thought it hilarious. Bre reminded me my grandfather WAS Irish - she remembers the stories of him dancing jigs etc. There I sat and insisted to the gentleman Stacia was not Irish. Bre said she thought it would let the misconception ride as we were rather entangled with the gentleman and ready for him to move on. 

Chipping away at her first semester of college

The girls are still hacking and sniffling. They are happy for the slower pace our planned cancelled trip and the snowstorms have created in their schedules.  They were gracious to stay upstairs and engage with GG so Michael and I could slide across to the boys and Arielle.  BTW I am also thankful for this slow week created by the storm and all the things we rearranged for the trip we did not take. God knew just what we needed this week. 

While we were at CoRielle's I got a message from a gal who wanted to buy 4 dozen eggs. She asked if I could meet her at 3 Bears to do a trade - paypal for eggs. We had just enough time to drive home. Michael put the animals to bed. I started working on salmon chowder. The girls jumped up and helped me chop and dice veggies, it was all simmering when Michael and I left to run eggs. We ended up going inside for a few things we like to buy at this store (Costco knock off). The girls finished off the chowder prep, toasted garlic bread and served dinner.  We love having young adults in our home.  Michael does not usually drive me in the winter any longer. This is our 6th winter up here. We both felt better with him driving as we hadn't been out since the big dumping....we saw a couple of accidents and just keep wondering, "WHY?" The roads didn't look bad, but folks were sliding into each other nonetheless. Maybe the woman going 25 mph in front of you is a blessing in disguise - that's what I thought when Alex reported being behind a driver all the way home. 

I started some cinnamon rolls rising early in the day. They did NOT rise as I expected, but everyone was happy to have a quick snack and laze around the living room together for a bit of time anyway this evening. 

Millie likes lazy night in the living room too

Michael and I loved having the time ALONE in the car today. We realized we've not had any time out together (as in a DATE) since Little Buddy moved in with CoRielle. Arielle and the boys were our respite care. GG misses his time with the boys. We just realized we miss our time too. We'll have to work on a solution. 

Loving the wood heat