Ice, Ice Baby

It's been so, so, so cold here lately. Like, cruel to make the kids go outside unless necessary cold. 30 minutes to get everyone dressed before we leave cold. But Saturday it got above 10 so we put everyone in the car to go see the ice in the Turnagain Arm. It was pretty neat to watch the chunks and slush moving with the tide. It's so pretty here, it's hard to stay indoors even when tempting frost nip!

Pudding Party

Grams and Poppy sent the girls matching hats and pudding and requested pictures. So here we go! I wish I were better at indoor photos but they're pretty cute kids even when they're yellow.

Christmas 2013

So we gave in and bought a fake tree. Any bad feelings quickly dissipated when all the needles stayed on the tree, there were no watering issues, plus it's made of recycled plastic and we didn't have to kill a tree. And since we went faux we went all out and got a black tree. It's pretty with white lights. Andrew also put lights up outside in subzero temperatures and we got to enjoy seeing them twinkle in the snow. We're still enjoying them twinkling in the snow and probably will until after the New Year. Heheh.

The girls tried to wait up for a glimpse of Santa. We made them a sleeping bag bed in the second living room and they tried so hard to keep their little eyes open. I'm surprised Arlie was able to sleep through Andi's taking over the bed. They didn't spy Santa but they were up early to open presents. When the sun doesn't come up until 10:15, early feels very early. As you can tell from the above photo, Kit wasn't really enthusiastic about the hour we got up but forgot her annoyance when she opened a few presents of her own.

What My Phone Has Seen

 Anchorage Museum, gingerbread village at the Captain Cook Hotel, and snowy weather, and cute kids.

Colony Christmas 2013

We drove through heavy snow today to celebrate the Christmas season in Palmer and their Colony Christmas. There's a bunch of activities, games, sleigh rides, crafts, and it ends with a lighted parade and fireworks. It was a lot of fun but I'm not sure if this was the first year or what but a lot of businesses seemed unprepared for the amount of people that showed up. The girls were able to participate in only one craft - frosting cookies - because it was the only one that had supplies left! And we went to a restaurant where there one poor waitress and cook manning the entire joint. There was a lot of talk of being better prepared next year, both by businesses and us.

Now to the stuff that went really, really right. There were lots of amazing crafts and food at the craft fairs. There are some very talented people living here! And the lighted parade was really fun. There were some creative floats and even a giant Radio Flyer wagon someone had turned into a car. There was a woman driving one of the trucks in the parade and I said to myself, "Huh. That woman is a dead ringer for Sarah Palin." A few seconds later it occurred to me that if I were to ever have a real Sarah Palin sighting, this would be the right neck of the woods for it.

And the firework show. I had a feeling it would be pretty awesome as BP was sponsoring it but it exceeded my expectations. We were so in the middle of the action we had ashes raining down on us along with snow. Embers were hitting tree branches and sending sparks flying all around. It was spectacular. I'm making it sound like all the fun was in the avoiding catching fire but it was just that the fireworks were THAT huge.

If we live in Alaska next year, we'll definitely be going back. The parade and fireworks made me feel that Christmas magic for the first time this season. I think Arlie and Andi will be demanding Christmas fireworks every year now. Heh.