Brrr.

So you have to go pick up your kids from their various schools, and you have to bring your toddler with you. The high in the last 3 weeks has been minus five, and has averaged about minus 20. Currently the temp is 16 below zero. Your toddler insists on wearing a skirt but even a pair of tights will not protect her from the frigid air. What do you do?

Be a true Alaskan and talk her into wearing her fleece PJ's underneath, of course! Doesn't she look smashing with monkey print jammies? Whatever works. I even got shoes on her.

P.S. We MIGHT get to zero today. Heat wave! At least I don't live in Palmer, which has been minus 45 at night, or worse, Fairbanks at 60 below for the past 3 weeks. Yikes!

I found my power cord!

And therefore I can blog. It's a little late, but here are some of our Christmas and Thanskgiving happenings. I'll finish Christmas soon, but I have to (get to) download a bunch of pictures from my brand-new super-duper Nikon D90 camera, and I'm not going to do that right now! Anyway, enjoy the new posts. You'll be relieved that I was lighter on the commentary this time! :P

Because we didn't get to cut our own tree this year, (See next post) I got talked into (manipulated) into doing gingerbread by my diabetic ("We didn't even get to cut down a tree or go clam-digging because you got run over by a car...blah blah blah...") Plus, Katie wanted to do them, so here we were on Christmas Eve. Sarah and Quinten with there insulin triggering creation:Lily, Rebecca, and Logan with theirs. (Mia helped, but wouldn't be in the photo).

Here's mine and Dale's. Hard to see, but Rudolph is mounted as a hunting trophy above the door.


Katie and Arlen's work of art.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

Normally we go and cut our own fresh tree from Johnson's pass every year, a great tradition that we all love. However, I got plowed over by a car recently (See July's posts) and didn't think a trek through 3 feet of snow, dragging a tree and two or three kids in sub-zero temps sounded like a good idear. So, we broke down and bought one from Lowes. The kids had a great time putting it up:



And might I add it's a slightly fuller tree than our normal Alaskan variety:

Christmas is so commercial!
(I love it that way!)

Pre Thanksgiving Pie Making

Well, I was carrying on one of my Mom's Thanksgiving traditions, making pecan pies with Logan and Lily, congratulating myself constantly on how well my pie shells turned out, and how delicious they looked and smelled as I poured the batter in the shells, when I hear Lily say matter of factly:

" It looks like throw-up."

Thanks a lot, Lily.

Bring on the Meat!

Elliotte pretty much summed up how we all felt about Mom and Dad's amazing Thanksgiving meal:

Where the heck is the turkey?



Now THIS is what I'm talkin' about!



I couldn't POSSIBLY eat another bite....Wait, what did you do with that delicous throw-up pie?

Sad News

This has been a wonderful Christmas, but it has taken a tragic turn. One of Rebecca's classmates was in a bad accident a couple of days before Christmas. We actually, unknowingly, drove by the scene while doing some last minute shopping. I knew it was bad when we saw it. The little boy, Nicholas, died on Christmas night. He was seven years old. Rebecca is handling this very well. I am not so much. As I wrote in an email to her teacher, "She doesn't know what it is like to love a child, as she is just a child herself." She has decided to attend the funeral tomorrow morning. I am asking that you all pray for her, me, and especially the Sims' family. His sister was also injured, but has returned home. I cannot imagine their grief.

I will post the more cheerful portions of our holidays in the near future, but in the meantime, say a little prayer for me.