Just because we're in the dark, doesn't mean you have to be... here's an update:

6 hours and 22 minutes of sunlight expected today. No sign of it yet.

Yesterday we started the annual gingerbread project. We didn't have a lot of time to devote to it. I had to work in the afternoon. But the gingerbread pieces have all been baked. Stephen helped make the gingerbread dough. Alicia helped eat the scraps. The older two have yet to pitch in. We're hoping to finish it by Friday so it can be entered in the Family category of the Eagle River Gingerbread Contest.

This week is basketball tryouts for both kids. So between that, me working evenings, Donald working between tryouts, and Tess's new babysitting gig... little time left for gingerbread, but we'll see!

Little Bit's been ill since Thanksgiving. We're not sure if she ate something she should not have or what's going on with her. We don't give her people food, but one of us is not so clear on that policy. Stephen was doling out leftover turkey morsels. He asked Alicia where hers had gone and noticed Bit licking her chops... Hmmmm.

Saturday evening after we returned from picking up a Christmas tree and dropping Tess off at the movie theatre to see Happy Feet with her friend, we found Bit standing amidst a couple pools of blood on the floor of the laundry room. We whisked her off to the Pet Emergency Services in Anchorage. They said she was dehydrated and gave her some antibiotics to take. She seems to be getting back to normal, but we're still not sure what caused her illness.