December Update

Sorry for the lapse.

Here's a summary of our December thus far:

Holiday Train was cancelled due to avalanche danger. Total let down. Thus no photos or trip report.

I ditched all further gingerbread plans after the collapse of my super-innovative 3-tier gingerbread cake with 50 candy cane candles to celebrate Alaska's 50th Birthday. The collapse was completely my fault as I forgot to stabilize the tiers. I tossed the whole thing in the trash and gave up on all gingerbread creations till next year.

Alicia is enjoying the holiday season. That's not to say that she's being a good girl. Actually she's rather concerned that she won't get anything off her list to Santa because she's pretty sure she's on the Naughty List. I told her she could certainly work to get off the Naughty List, but she claims that's not possible because when Santa put her on that list, he wasn't writing in pencil.

So there you have it.

We've been to several holiday bazaars and seen Santa on several occasions. Each time Santa asks Alicia what she wants for Christmas she tells him she's made a list and plans to deliver it to him at his house in the North Pole. So she just takes the candy cane offered and skips off.

We are planning our trip to the North Pole next weekend, along with a 2-night stay in the Chena River cabin and a visit to the Chena Hot Springs which are north of Fairbanks.

Tess had her last high school Christmas choir concert this past Thursday evening. She sang a solo of "Christmas Shoes", which is, of course, a tear-jerker song. She looked great in a sparkly red dress she'd borrowed from a friend. And she did a great job with the song. I think she was relieved when it was over! I got it on video. As soon as I learn how to post videos on here, I'll put it up.

Today we're finally going to cut down our Christmas tree at the Matanuska Moose Range up past Sutton about 30 miles north of home. After that, we'll go to the Colony Christmas celebration in Palmer which includes a gingerbread house competition (which I'm not entering after all...), horse-drawn wagon rides, snowmachine-drawn sled rides, cookie contest, craft bazaars, a parade of lights, and fireworks.

The days are getting to their shortest lengths. The sun doesn't rise till after 10am and sets just after 3:30 in the afternoon. So when planning activities like tromping around the moose-filled woods looking for a Christmas tree, timing is everything. This year we're planning to bring snowshoes to better deal with the deep snow. Last year involved a lot of trailbreaking.

Alicia is currently "rocking around" a 12" tall Christmas tree she's set in the middle of the floor. She thinks we should put the big Christmas tree smack in the middle of the living room so we can "rock around" it. We'll see.