This Thanksgiving

I am thankful for my sweetheart. Ryan managed to have his birthday on Thanksgiving this year. He opened presents right after breakfast so he could have the whole day to enjoy them.



We even got to see the sun on that morning.


We skied (cross-country), played with his new soccer ball (from Kim) outside in the snow and ate about 3:30 or so after it was dark. We didn't want to use our daylight hours for that. My turkey turned out really well and even though it was just us, we enjoyed each other and made some good memories. Kim made us some turkey placemats that were colorful and fun.


Then we had cake. No pies for me this year. Did I mention that cake is way easier to make than pie?



All in all, a fun day. It was great to have some family time. Now on to Christmas preparations.

O Tannenbaum

Yesterday we headed to the Tanana Valley State Forest by way of Two Rivers Road, just about 20 miles from here, and cut a Christmas tree. The area is open for noncommercial timber harvesting, and you can even cut one Christmas tree without a permit. Kim selected an attractive white spruce.



I had a lot of fun driving the Cherokee on the snowy logging roads. It does quite well in the snow, even without snow tires.

















We discovered that the roads were perfect for kids' sledding. Kim and Liberty had a ball. We even saw a dog sled team a couple of times, with ten or twelve Siberian Huskies pulling a man up the hill. Yes, the man had a bushy beard just like in the movies.



We were so excited to see direct sunlight that we took a picture. The sun doesn't get far above the southern horizon these days. You pretty much get morning or evening all day.

















The final product.

Hey There Pilgrim

Today we experienced our first family school activity. The Kindergarten has a Thanksgiving Parade. We had two Kindergarten classes of Pilgrims and two Kindergarten classes of Indians. The kids took in a shirt that apparently was dyed and then the kids drew on them. They have a list of other classes in the school that want to be visited and each Kindergarten class has a song they sing. After the parade, we went to Kim's classroom to have friendship soup and pumpkin pie made by the kids. Kim said she got to put the sugar in the pumpkin pie. It was quite fun, although a little crazy with 20 kids running around. (Plus the few extra younger ones from visiting parents.)

Kim in the parade.



Morning and afternoon class all together.



A view of Kim's Indian shirt.

Alaska Sunrises

Here are some beautiful pictures I have taken in the last week of the sunrise from our house. It is easy to see it when it doesn't come up until 10 or 11.

My favorite


Love the way the frozen trees light up.


The neighbor's smoke drifting across.

Naughty or Nice?

Living in North Pole, we have certain privileges. Like being able to go to Santa Claus' House. We did this a few weeks ago when my friend Katie was here visiting. Unfortunately, Santa was having a rest gearing up for the big season to come, but we saw his chair!

Katie, Abi, and Sadie sitting in Santa's chair.


Our family in his chair.

Santa's reindeer were kept out back, getting into shape for the yearly flight.



Also, we were happy to discover that Ryan made it on the nice list this year. If you zoom in, you can see his name there.

Happy Halloween

Since Alaska is pretty much too cold for Trick-or-Treating, we didn't do any of that. Kim's school does a Great Pumpkin Carnival during the early afternoon that we went to instead. They had face painting, balloons (I've always loved those), games, and a trick-or-treat alley. It took a good amount of time and was pretty fun. There were WAY too many kids trying to squeeze through the halls though. Pretty simple Halloween. No fancy dinner, no trick-or-treaters at our house. Oh well, it was kind of nice that way.

Kim the Tooth Fairy getting her face painted.


Making Kim a flower balloon.


Glade the leopard and Kim the Tooth Fairy eating cupcakes from the cake walk.

Country Living

We are really enjoying our new place. This week, winter set in full force. It's a month later than normal, which I won't complain about. We have had snow starting Sunday night until Wednesday. We didn't get too much accumulation though. I have been enjoying the snow tires on the van. They make driving a lot nicer.

I have taken some pictures of what our views look like that I think turned out well. You can see the Aurora from our bedroom window at night when they are out.

I took this one from the Dining Room window the beautiful, clear morning after the snow stopped.


This is a picture from our porch. It shows some ice fog.


All in all, a satisfying and beautiful place to live.

She Talks!

Sort of. This post is for the Grandpas and Grandmas and Aunts and Uncles who haven't gotten to see Libby at all or not much.



Our little Liberty will be 3 months old in two days. Where does the time go? She is getting fun. She babbles and smiles and even laughed the other day. We love having her as part of our family.

Conjunctivitis: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Kim got conjunctivitis (pink eye) a couple of weeks ago and was unable to go to school. As luck would have it, Ryan had the day off. So, although she was extremely sad about missing school with her beloved teacher, she was compensated by a family outing.

We went here. There was a trappers cabin and a fun little trail. Kim found some shiny silvery rocks that she insisted were gold or silver and worth a lot of money.


We did a short hike that everyone enjoyed. The river valley was really nice.


We even did a little Jeepin' and found a rusty old pipe (surely not the Alaskan pipeline?).



On the way home, Ryan spotted this fun little shed next to a little outpost/bar/grocery store. It shows what avid sportsmen live around here.


Speaking of which, someone got a new gun today. Doesn't he look great? I'm biased, of course.



So although Kim got conjunctivitis (we had to go to the ER since the clinic was closed for Columbus Day, fortunately there was no line) which was bad and the day threatened to be ugly, it turned out to be a good, no make that GREAT, day.

Guess who came to our house