Our Christmas Story: Hopefully Not A New Tradition

I haven't mentioned our interesting Christmas morning. The kids were just a tad excited on Christmas Eve, and had a little bit of trouble going to sleep. They didn't actually get into bed until after 10 pm. It was at least an hour later before they were asleep. Needless to say, It was a late night for me and Russ as well. We crawled into bed after midnight. The only bright spot on the horizon was the fact that our kids like to sleep late. Brandon normally gets up around 9:30 or 10 am on the weekends. Jess will sleep past that if she doesn't have something social planned.

At 3:30 Christmas morning, something entered our darkened bedroom. "Mama, can we get up now and open our presents?" Brandon. "Go back to sleep. It's not time yet. It's the middle of the night," I grumbled. "No it's not," he replied in a chipper manner, "It's morning!" "3:30 is not morning, it's the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT! Go to bed." The pitter patter of little feet slowly faded away. Then back again. "Mama, can we get up now? It's later." "Brandon, 4 am is not later. It is still the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!" "OK." Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump...(sounds mercifully fade away). Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump...(and back again). "Mama, can I wake Jessica up now so we can open our presents?" I slowly open one eye toward the clock. "Brandon, what time does that say?" "4:30." "Do we get up at 4:30?" "Maybe we could today," he pleaded. Just for gee wiz, the cute little puppy dog eyes don't work when it's too dark to see them. "Go to bed." Thump, thump, thump, thump..."Mama?" Ugh. You have got to be kidding me. Why does he only come to my side of the bed? Why not ask Dad these questions? "Mama?" "What, Brandon?" "Is it time to get up now?" I try to focus my bloodshot eyes on the clock. It takes more than a little effort. 5:30 am. "Whatever," I grumbled. "Does that mean you're getting up? " he asks, ever hopeful. I give up. If they had Brandon at the Battle of the Alamo, it would have been a quick and painful victory. I wonder if I can rent him out to the military. He is much more efficient than Chinese Water Torture. "Get in bed Brandon. I need a shower. We'll do the present thing when I get out." I slowly crawl out of my nice, cozy bed. The boy bounces in and curls up in my warm spot. He is a happy camper. Me? Not so much. Victory is his.

Merry Christmas!

We are having a lovely White Christmas here! The snow has been falling for several hours, but we haven't ventured out in it yet. We had thoughts of going sledding today, but there are too many distractions inside right now with all the Christmas food and gifts, so it will have to wait. We got a Wii for Christmas this year. Tink has been very helpful in reading the directions and installing all of the hardware. I don't know what we'd do without her. I must say, she is very dedicated to her job. She was very thorough in making sure all of the parts were out of the box. See what I mean? Dedication!

She had a few problems that she had to work out with her supervisor (Ashley), but for the most part, it was a problem free installation. I think she just needs to work on her "people skills".

This is the beauty that Russ got me for Christmas. It's an ulu, hand carved out of a sun bleached walrus jaw. This was something I've been wanting since we moved to Alaska. An ulu is an Inuit all purpose knife that dates back to around 2500 BC. The handles are traditionally carved out of caribou antlers.

Before I forget, turn on your speakers for the full effect, because I've now added music to the blog. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve

Russ and I ventured out to do a little last minute Christmas shopping. The traffic wasn't too bad downtown. Hopefully we got everything we need. There is always something, though... We sort of took the long way home and checked out some of our favorite spots. I though I'd share a few pics of Christmas Eve in Alaska.

Merry Christmas!

Another Snowy December Day

It snowed again yesterday. Fresh snow always makes it feel more Christmasy. (Is that even a word? Spell check says no, but I beg to differ.) This is the overhang on our front porch. Whenever it warms up a little bit, the ice and snow slowly slide down the metal roof and ease over the edge. Then it refreezes at night, and we are left with what look like huge fingers or paws reaching over the roof of the house. It gets very exciting when it warms up again, because then the ice and snow slide off and hit the ground with a big boom. One big chunk almost took out a neighbor on his back patio last year. It's best to keep an eye on things while you are shoveling off your patios and porches. As you can see, we are getting a lot of use out of our fire pit right now. You can almost hear the crackling fire and smell the marshmallows roasting. As I was standing in the doorway, taking pictures of interesting things out back, a big gust of arctic wind came through. I jumped back into the house, reached out to shut the door, and happened to look down. What interesting tracks. Some small creature has been checking out my back porch. Then I looked down at the stairs. That's my small creature! Apparently Tink crept out when I was taking a picture. She's lucky I looked back before I shut the door! We could have ended up with a Tinksicle. Of course I yelled at her. I explained to her that I was wearing socks and was in no way going out there to get her. She was not impressed. I explained to her that her spoiled little rear would be frozen in minutes if I left her out there. She took a bite of snow.

I told her she was being a royal pain and I was shutting the door now, cat or no cat. She decided her toes were a little chilly and began to casually pick her way through the snow to the door. Of course, you can't rush the Tink. With each step, she would raise a paw, shake the snow off of it and carefully place it back down. Ugh. I wouldn't have half this trouble if I had just gotten the kids a reindeer.