Sunday in December

A fun thing about having KrUke home is that they are EARLY risers and everyone around here is to content to sleep until afternoon. Krista got up and made us omelets. We talked. I miss my Krista talks. I absolutely love and revel in having Krista and Luke in the house. 

Luke and Krista had been looking forward to a couple of weeks at ACF. This is the only chance Krista has to simply enjoy a service with no chaplain responsibilities. Unfortunately, our church didn't meet on the 28th.  We promised them next week. LOL People stopped by throughout the day to welcome them home. 

Michael and I drove to Anchorage to meet Melia's father and to sign guardianship papers with a notary. We also met the father of the family who is taking Melila's sisters. It is sad, somber and humbling to commit to love and raise another's child. No matter what good comes of the story we are aware there is pain, brokenness and trauma at the beginning and here at the point where we enter her story. Our circle expands as we commit to pray for Melia's family of origin for as long as we live.  

Melia will be moving in on the 1st. 

Luke & Krista are Home!

Michael and I are back at the airport for another midnight pickup. This time we are picking up Krista and Luke (KrUke). They have spent the past week in CA with Luke's children and are now here for a week of glorious family time and fun. Luke is flying from CA to MT and then to AK. Krista is flying from CA to Denver and on to AK. We are figuring out these late pickups...we wandered down to the COMFORTABLE chairs. (Note: we realized later we can avail ourselves of the military lounge in the future).

Both landed within minutes of each other. We picked up luggage and headed home to the valley.

Much earlier in the day I had enjoyed breakfast with the girls at Sophia's. Our family gift exchange is NYE and our household exchange is after that...so we went shopping and enjoyed the clearance deals. LOL

We wrapped gifts this afternoon....and it looks much more like Christmas under the tree.  These are our gifts for the kids and grands. We also draw names so there are more gifts to come from others before NYE.

During our Christmas Eve services Pastor Brian talked about the real nativity scene ala Revelation....we added a red dragon to our set. It symbolizes the fact that from the moment Jesus was born a battle rages...and sometimes life just stinks when we are caught up in the battle. 

This speaks to me. The past few years have been hard as we bumped into evil and it impacted us in big ways. That first Christmas I pushed through and decorated the tree, and it was hard and depressing. Our ornaments are photo and we missed Josiah so much.  By last Christmas I had learned it was OK to allow grief space, all the old things don't have to be done to prove we CAN do them and so we didn't put a tree up at all. We put up the nativity. 

This year the tree is up - with lots of lights but no ornaments. Maybe I'll pull the ornaments out next year. Maybe not...but that dragon makes sense to us. 

Another Powerless Evening

 We didn't make the drive into Eagle River for church today. We visited CoRielle's church. Sure enough - we lost power again - but we are so prepped for it now! Sunday night games and ice cream in the glow of the flashlights. 

Changing Plans

Our plan had been to visit vendors, watch a parade and enjoy Colony Christmas. HOWEVER, it has been cold and windy, and we didn't feel like being outside. We changed our plans.  

Everyone moved to our home where we created a little gingerbread village (remember that missing village set up), made and decorated cookies, had hot chocolate and visited inside instead. 

Danny & Allie

Jojo (Josiah)

Annie

Playing games with the boys - not this day but the
photo is on this day? 

Noah and Jared came by and joined the fun! 

Noah

Jared questions Noah's decorating decisions

The day turned out to be great fun even though we didn't do what we had planned on doing. 

FRIDAY VISITS

 Michael previously had a cardiac procedure. Today he had a wound check. We were SHOCKED to find out he had been doing the whole "no lifting over 5 lbs., no pushing or pulling thing," WRONG. This was a bit discouraging as he had been hoping to be back to full lifting etc. today. He had begun lifting with his left arm instead of his right....but they want NONE for a bit longer. 

ALLIE IS STILL HOME ... and several stopped by to visit...several more will drop by tomorrow. I caught these people on film.

Playing Headbandz in Stacia's space

Noah plays bean bag toss

Annie and Bre put together this puzzle

Gideon and I put this together

We cannot find my Christmas village. I purchased a train to go around it...so we are in the process of building some sort of town. It started with a trailer, a water tower and some trees.  Michael and I thought we would paint a village, but our local Art Cafe did not have the pieces. I did pick up a couple of buildings on clearance later on in the season. 

Annie

Gideon 

Noah and Trudy

Nolan

Stacia had to work today but was able to enjoy some of the fun. Bre and kids, CoRielle, Noah and Jared and Jamin all dropped by. We had something for dinner and then played games and visited. 

Allie is Home!

 The day was full. Michael had two appointments (Orthopedic and Chiropractic), and I had to take Dad for an eye appointment as well. Life group was tonight...but the highlight, by far, of the day has been picking Allie up at the airport! 

We planned, re-planned, and finally the day was here! Allie is home from college. Of course, it wouldn't be Alaskan travel if one didn't fly in around midnight. ::Snort:: 

We arrived early and checked the arrival board about a million times before her flight finally landed. Next time we plan to make fun signs! 

Ah, life is sweet! 

One more shot - and then I just put the camera aside and enjoyed the moment! 

How we've missed Allie! We all knew when she was ready to fly the nest or coop as it may be. It has been so FUN to watch her flight. She is thriving in Virginia. YES, there are things she dislikes about Liberty. All in all, she LOVES what she is doing, and is very good at it, too. It's fun to watch her developing new skills and finding her community of creatives. She did swimmingly well in all her courses last semester: Cinema Legal Environment, Story Analysis, Producing and Direction and Production: Editing. Her college grade point average is 3.87. 

We are thrilled she has a nice long vacation before she begins her next semester. She will be taking Cinema Aesthetics, Narrative Writing, Intro to Motion Pictures: Directing, and she will be part of creating a feature length film. Two of her classes will revolve around the creation of the feature film; Feature: pre-production and Feature: production. 

Here are some random photos of Allie living her best life which I haven't shared because I've not been blogging. ::snort:: 

Visits - Surprised and Planned

 Jared, Larissa and Noah stopped by this afternoon. We had a fun visit. At one point Noah and I went to the toy closet. I was surprised when he found a tote with racetracks and cars. I'd forgotten Arielle had brought them over. We had so much fun I now am on the lookout for a bigger set for the grands to enjoy during the long winter visits. 

There was also this garage like box that shoots cars out of it. 

A little bit of friendly rivalry....

Nolan and Jamin arrived later to watch "The Age of Ultron" the next movie in our Marvel marathon.

Surprised or planned visits from the adult Gherkins and grands are the best.