Christmas Break

So, it was a fantastic Christmas program... The kids did great, they enjoyed singing and dancing for their parents. They were just so darn cute in their little black hats and buttons and scarves...

We also wrapped up the semester with a recognition assembly for our kiddos who read this year. While my class didn't bring back the most books and bring back the most leaves, I am VERY proud of them and their reading at home.

 I didn't even have to ask them to put the clothes on for pictures!  They were soooo excited.

Hats from Granny Norma, books from Grandma Judy, shirts from teacher... Pencils and candy from my mom and sisters. :)

The kids were overjoyed with the presents sent by Grandma Judy, Granny Norma, and my mom and sisters. I made them t-shirts and they were simply ecstatic...

I had a safe, eventful, awesome trip back to Oregon for break... Santa came early as Dad and I went to the gun shop and picked out a pistol... Bang bang! Can't wait to get some more practice shooting it. :) Christmas was amazing... So much family and laughter. My grandparents made it up from Reno and my Uncle Clint made it up with his 3 boys from Weaverville. It was fun to get to spend a holiday with them... First one that I can remember. Of course, we also had awesome family from Dad's side here too. The house was packed and full of joy. :)

Now, the house is much quieter because everyone is gone except Hannah and I... I'm just relaxing and enjoying the last few days in Oregon before I make my trek back north to the snow and my SKI DOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Christmas is in the air!!

This past week and a half has been a whirlwind of practicing for the Christmas program, making crafts and enjoying the spirit of the season. We have been working very hard on our two snowman poems and I think we just might be ready to perform for our parents tomorrow evening!!

We are very excited for Christmas break. The kids are looking forward to not having work and I'm excited to see some family. The teachers up here are asking for prayers for good weather Saturday through Monday as we all try to get out of the village.

I have been enjoying my ski doo on short trips, just around town. Maybe one day this week I'll have enough time after school to go for a short cruise out of town and see some country. :) I'll write more later. Maybe tomorrow evening I'll be able to post a video of our performance! :)

SKI DOO!!!!!!!

So. I know most of you know how ECSTATIC I was to order my ski doo... And then the phone call to have it shipped... Many of you also know how frustrated I was that my machine still hadn't arrived after 2 weeks and I've told the story of my phone call to my salesman.

So, my ski doo actually came in the Saturday after Thanksgiving.... The dumb dumb in ANC didn't put my right phone number on there so when the guys in Emo tried to call, they couldn't get ahold of me. On Friday I talked to the shipping folks and asked if they has shipped it yet. They said it would be within the week.... However, Saturday I didn't feel the need to call because it sounded like my machine was one of 5 coming out and it would be closer to Wednesday or Thursday. On Monday I called and lo and behold it was in Emo!! I did a crazy dance all the way into Jana's classroom where she and her boys (who've been asking constantly if it was here yet) got really excited too. So Jana and I skipped our Monday night class online and went to Emo for a new toy.

 Another evening at the dock....

 My ride next to Jana's after we got back from Emo.... Cold fingers and face, but had OH SO MUCH FUN!!!

 EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I really wanted to scale the side of the connex to jump that baby right down to the ground... However, the guys at Everts were speedy quick and I had my machine in about 5 minutes. :)

 SOOOOOO EXCITED!!! :) :) :) It was like 15 or 20 below at this point, but we didn't care! :)

Little baby started with just .7 miles on it.... Funny because LaFonda started with only 7 when I took her for a test drive... Hope this machine is as trustworthy as she was!! :)

I haven't been out playing on it as much as I would've liked because, well, I have this thing called a real job. It sort of hinders my daylight hours of playing in the snow. But I've been around AUK a little on it, cruised to the dock a few times. I'm hoping for a longer day of riding this weekend. I'll post pictures next week if I go out!

Thanksgiving Break

Again, 3 weeks between blog posts.... SOOOO SORRY!!!!

I think my last blog was just before Thanksgiving?? So, our friend Jamie came to Alakanuk from Mountain Village to spend the weekend with us. She arrived on time, had a worry free flight and seemed to enjoy her time here. We spent the weekend hoping and praying for my ski doo and smoked turkey to come and spending 90% of our time laughing....

I was highly disappointed Wednesday afternoon when I checked the PO and the turkey hadn't come... But it all turned out okay because I still was able to make pumpkin pie, ham, sour cream potatoes, apple pie and rolls. We also had a new invention on our dinner table.... Since we didn't have any turkey drippings to make gravy, nor did we have any powdered gravy mix we decided to give it a shot making ham gravy. Jamie created a masterpiece.

I had new adventure the day after Thanksgiving. I attempted cross country skiing. I did fall once going down a little hill, but for the most part I did really well. I think it helps that I've water skied so much, and tried downhill skiing a few times in my younger years. :) We skied to the dock and shot Jana's .22. It was really cool to see the dock because I hadn't been down there since before the big storm. The ice looks awesome.

 Jana and Jamie trying to see the range on the .22... They were standing on whats left of Alakanuk Hill...

 Make shift porta potty....

 DIRRRRTY ice... It was really cool to see the ice that had been pushed up during the big storm. I was way impressed. It was a couple inches thick, too!

Our student council also hosted the Turkey Tournament. Its a regional tournament for the mens city league teams around AUK. I spent lots of hours at the school volunteering to do scorebooks, gate, and help in the student store. I had originally thought that Thanksgiving weekend would be a good time to catch up on sleep. However, I think I got LESS sleep over those 5 days than I do on a regular week. Oh well, it was fun!