Gingerbread and the Nutcracker

We hosted our annual Gingerbread house decorating party yesterday. It was a fun time. This year the dads didn't evacuate the premises as they usually do. In fact, they made themselves very useful.

One mom was on bed rest, so her husband was the main subcontractor on their kids' gingerbread construction project. And I actually had to run to the AT&T store with Tess to buy our new iPhones before the store closed and Stephen had to fly out to Seattle (today) without his new phone. So Stephen took over gingerbread duties with Alicia for that 45 minute period.

I snapped a few photos of the construction process prior to departing. You can see them in this photo album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126232&id=523908158&l=ff84c3b09d

I've also just uploaded some photos from the Thanksgiving Day activities. Those can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126224&id=523908158&l=8d30ee9446

This morning the girls and I are headed to church where Alicia will attend Christmas pageant practice. She's going to be an angel in the play.

Actually, both the teens are sleeping over at a friend's house as they both went to the Cotillion dance in Anchorage last night. But they'll meet us at the church.

Stephen will be flying to Seattle today for a weeklong training. So he'll miss church. He's busy packing his bags and looking forward to playing with his new phone. Don't worry, we got him the super sturdy phone case.

After church, the girls and I will go to see the Nutcracker at the Alaska Performing Arts Center in Anchorage. It should be a nice day.

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

We had an enjoyable day with our friends the McDonalds yesterday for Thanksgiving. The kids "swam" in the hot tub. The dads watched football and other TV in the "man cave", which also contains the hot tub... So they were on lifeguard duty some of the time.

It was Babsy's first American Thanksgiving. We let her have the honor of scooping the stuffing out of the turkey. She also peeled about a thousand potatoes so we could have lots leftover mashed potatoes to send home with our guests.

All the food turned out wonderfully. Everyone was sufficiently in the state of a food coma. The teens went straight to their after-Thanksgiving meal snooze.

Today, Tess and I departed the house early for a little Black Friday shopping. We hit Kohl's (which had some good deals, but MILE LONG lines to the register), Target, Best Buy, Sport's Authority, Walmart, and Fred Meyer. We only actually purchased things at Target, Walmart, and Fred Meyer.

We got back home around 11:30am. Tess had to go babysit at 12:15 in Eagle River. Stephen brought in my tubs of Christmas decorations from the shed. Then he went off to do some Black Friday shopping of his own. Tess dropped Babsy off at Fred Meyer on her way into Eagle River. Alicia went down for her nap and I did some decorating and gingerbread house baking while the snow fell steadily outside our picture windows.

I've got Christmas CD's playing. It's a peaceful holiday afternoon.

Turning 40 in Ten Easy Steps

Step 1: Wake up at 5:30am to a 4 year old staring at you with an expectant "Happy Birthday, Mommy!".

Step 2: Decide right off the rip that you're going to be late for work. (Disregard that you're late everyday... because today you're planning to be late. Don't forget to call in.)

Step 3: Put on a skirt (if you're a woman or Scottish only). Because you're the Birthday Girl and you're supposed to wear a dress on your birthday.

Step 4: Now that you're wearing a dress, take note that no one else remembered to put out the trash... again. And since you're leaving last (see Step 2), it's up to you to drag two weeks worth of trash to the curb in heels, a skirt, and -5 degree wind chill.

Step 5: Finally make it to work an hour late. Be served carrot cake in the office, white butter cake at your lunch meeting, and chocolate cake at a subsequent meeting. (The last two cakes were to celebrate International GIS Day, not the aging process.)

Step 6: Be serenaded twice at work and once over the phone by your mother.

Step 7: Once back home, eat takeout steak and cheese sandwiches from the local saloon. Polish it off with, what else, more cake! This time it's chocolate ice cream cake.

Step 8: Open gifts and cards.

Step 9: Play two rounds of Hullabaloo with the family. This game is obviously rigged by someone who doesn't pamper to Birthday Girls. So if you're a sore loser, you may want to bypass this step.

Step 10: Realize that no matter what folks say about turning 40, you are who you are whether you're 39, or 40, or whatever. Life's too short to worry about little numbers.

Moose Alert

Announcement over the office PA: Attention, there is a moose in the parking lot. So please be very careful if you need to go outside.

I chose that time to go get my morning cup of tea... taking the long circumference route of the office in hopes of finding Mr. Moose. No luck. But at least I have my tea.

Sitting back at my desk, I dove back into my work.

After about 10 minutes, the lighting got slightly dimmer and I had the distinct feeling of being watched. I thought a truck might have driven up next to my streetside window. I glanced up to find Mr. Moose blocking half of my window, watching me.

He nibbled some of the berries off the tree nearby and then moved on.

You can see here where his antler had recently been... Other than the gaping wound, he was a very dashing moose.

We named him Muffin.