Catching Up

We had Russ' shop Christmas party this past Saturday. It was a lot of fun. The party was at the Chalet out at Six Mile Lake. The airmen that put it on did a super job and everyone had a great time. Fantastic food, great prizes, and lots of entertaining conversations.

I got a nice surprise last week when the school presented me with roses as a Thank You for helping out with the Christmas play. Very cool. Jess took some beautiful pictures of them, so I thought I'd put one on the blog.

We also went out to Hillburg and had some fun sledding last weekend. Jess took her camera there, too, and I just got around to downloading the pictures from that. These were taken during out relaxing break. It takes a lot of energy to keep climbing up that hill after you sled down.

It's snowing outside right now, and has been for the last few hours. Poor Russ shoveled off the driveway and sidewalk this afternoon. Then we went to a movie and out to eat. By the time we got home, there were a few more inches of snow on the driveway, so he got to do it all again. That's OK, it's great exercise. Trust me, I've done more than my share of shoveling, so I know. Hopefully it will keep snowing all night and the sledding hill will be ready to go tomorrow. We are going to have a beautiful white Christmas.

On a more interesting note, though, the story of Snowzilla continues. After the Grinch tried to stop the yearly building of our beloved Snowzilla, a group of elves magically built him back up to a very impressive height of 25 feet while the city slept last night. Bigger and better than ever. You guys rock! Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause. His spirit lives in all of us.

(Snowzilla photograph from the Anchorage Daily News)

Christmas Fun

I love the way the trees look covered with hoar frost. It was even better yesterday when the skies were such a pretty blue. It was also about 7 degrees when I took this picture at lunch. Ugh! Gloves would have been helpful. :0) When I take Brandon to school in the morning, the sun is just starting to come up and everything is a pale blue gray. Lately, we've had a lot of ice fog in the morning, so even the sky is that color. It makes everything appear ghostly. I'll try to get a picture of it one of these morning. Things have been very busy lately, and I can't leave the camera in the vehicle when I am running around town (it's just TOO cold), so I haven't been taking as many pictures. Today is the last day of school until after the New Year, so hopefully it will slow down. Brandon's class had their Christmas party yesterday. They had a lot of fun. They even made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. Everyone had their own style, and it was interesting to see what they were trying. A group of kids went for height, and were trying to get 4 or 5 stories out of their houses. Needless to say, they all ended up toppling over. One kid made Santa's outhouse. Interesting and practical. Brandon went for a nice two story with a garage. Also practical. As I was taking some pictures, I notice something strange about his shirt. "Is that the same shirt you had on this morning?" "Unh huh", he answered. "Didn't it have writing on it?" "Unh huh", he replied. "Is your shirt on backwards?" "Unh huh", he mumbled. Clearly I was interfering in his creative building process. "Why?" (You know you are wondering the same thing. Surely there is a reason.) "I just like to do it sometimes." Good enough. This does explain how the back of his shirt has food, paint or ink on it some days. "Would you mind turning it around so I can see the front?" "I guess." It's the little things.

Merry Christmas!