A Very Merry Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas. I’m amazed at how much more I’ve enjoyed this holiday season since I’ve stopped being “the cake lady”. I can barely remember anything about last year’s Christmas celebrations with the family. All memories of that season concern cake orders, craft bazaars, long sleepless nights, and lots of spirit-crushing stress…

This year has been miraculously different! And for that, we are all grateful!

Lots of things evolved throughout this year to culminate in a very merry Christmas at our house. Some of those included Tess’s return from schooling out-of-state and my returning to the full-time workplace after nearly a year of unemployment/self-employment. These things contributed to more quality family time and additional funds in our household budget.

God works in mysterious ways. And, we are thankful that He continues to bless us as we stumble through our daily lives.

We attended Christmas Eve service and went out for our traditional Chinese food on the 24th. Christmas morning began around 7am. The pitter patter of Alicia’s little feet made their way downstairs to the living room, which had been transformed overnight to a gift explosion.

Donald arrived at about that time, having delivered the Sunday paper to his route in the hours just prior to that.

Alicia came back to our bedroom repeatedly, all excited with reports of Santa’s gifts. We finally gave in and rolled out of bed. I made a batch of monkey bread. We opened our stockings and then dove into the gift pile.

Alicia received lots of wonderful things from Santa and others. Her main gifts which she had requested from the big guy were a scooter and the American Girl doll, Molly. Her stuffed kitty, Rosabelle, also received gifts from Santa. Alicia was really pleased about that. The rest of us received more functional gifts like clothing and consumables.

After unwrapping the gifts (which lasted a record 2.5 hours), we spent a leisurely day watching movies, playing games, and snoozing. We had a Christmas turkey dinner with some of our favorites, sweet potato casserole, Hawaiian sweet bread, and green bean casserole.

The day has been deliciously stress-free. A truly merry Christmas….

And the winner is...

This past Thursday, Stephen was at work, which, on that day, involved sitting in a hole underneath a building in Anchorage when he got a call on his cell phone. Some guy called to tell him he’d won a $3000 DeWalt tools shopping spree from their hardware store. Yeah, right.

Stephen was skeptical. …to say the least…

He called to tell me about the phone call he’d received. I looked it up online and found that there was, indeed, a contest being sponsored by that hardware store. And Stephen vaguely remembered filling out a little slip of paper and dropping it in a box on the store counter several weeks back. So, it turned out that it wasn’t a prank! Hooray!

The next day, we went to the hardware store in Anchorage (the main store with a larger selection) so Stephen could pick out which DeWalt tools he wanted. Naturally, he’d spent the entire evening before scouring the internet to make a prioritized list of his tool options.

Right up to the moment when they told him to start gathering his selections, Stephen was still a little skeptical that this was some sort of prank, or at the very least, a misunderstanding. Once, he came to terms with the idea that they really were going to give him his choice of $3000 worth of tools, he was like a kid in a candy store. It was like a dream come true. I haven’t seen him that giddy for quite some time.

We spent a couple of hours at the store while he made selections, got a “money left” tally, swap things around, made more selections, and finally ended up with a big pile of new tools and a large diamond plate toolbox for his truck. He was justifiably pleased as punch.

The store clerks were super helpful and very accommodating. Sometimes it seems like customer service is a forgotten art. And here, in this case, where we weren’t even spending any money, these store clerks treated us like their most important customer. It was awesome. And, let’s face it, it made for a VERY Merry Christmas!

Heading for the Holidays

We are gearing up for Christmas here in Alaska. Tess’s last final exam is today. Alicia’s last day of school before Christmas Break is tomorrow. The excitement builds!

Tess will continue to work at the childcare facility on the local military base (JBER) during her school break. Alicia will be going to the same program she attends afterschool called Camp Fire. Only it will be full days, like day camp. I have the full week between Christmas and New Year’s off from work as our company has a mandatory shutdown (paid) during which time we are forced to spend quality time with our families. Cool, huh? So, Alicia and I will be having lots of fun during that time.

Since I posted last, we’ve done our Denali Road Lottery trip. Each year, the National Park Service holds a lottery (in June) to provide 1600 passes for individuals to drive their personal vehicles into Denali National Park over the course of a 4-day weekend in mid-September. Denali NP closes for the season just prior to the Road Lottery weekend. At all other times, the only travel into the park is via tour bus. Personal vehicles are not allowed beyond Milepost 15. Winning a lottery pass allows you to drive yourself all the way in to the end at Milepost 92.

We’ve put in for one of the passes every year since we moved here in 2006. This is the first year we’ve gotten one. And, actually this year we got TWO! So, we gave one to our friends and they accompanied us in their vehicles.

You can see photos from this trip here:

Denali Road Lottery Photo Album
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150313126133159.351458.523908158&type=1&l=ea77ff9010

Earlier this month, Stephen, Alicia, and I ventured up to North Pole to visit Santa Claus at his house. We try to make this trip each year. But we had to cancel it last year for monetary reasons.

On a good day, it’s about a 5 hour drive to North Pole from the Anchorage area. The city of North Pole is just down the road from Fairbanks in interior Alaska. The weather was less than ideal on the weekend we made the trip. So, it took us 7.5 hours to get up there and over 8 hours of driving to get back home. Nearly 16 hours of driving for approximately 16 minutes with Santa…. It was worth it! Alicia had a wonderful time visiting the big guy. And, since we arrived at his house first thing in the morning, we were able to have a pleasant visit with him without feeling rushed by other waiting visitors.

We also visited with several of Santa’s reindeer in the pen next to his workshop.

Normally we stay in one of the DNR public use cabins on the Chena Hot Springs Road. These are rustic, with wooden bunks, a wood stove, and an outhouse. They rent for $45/night. We did have one reserved for the trip. But we ended up having to reschedule the trip for a different weekend to avoid missing my office Christmas party. And, our cabin wasn’t available. So, we found a good deal on a hotel in Fairbanks and booked that instead. For an additional $13/night, we got running hot water, actual beds to sleep on, and an all-you-can-eat continental breakfast buffet! Alicia proclaimed it her favorite hotel “so far”. We were pretty pleased with ourselves.

If you’d like to see some more photos from our trip, you can find those here:

North Pole Trip Photo Album
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150430285648159.371416.523908158&type=1&l=33184bd7ba