At Home…in Alaska

Archive for December, 2003

The weatherman said up to 2″ last night. It’s reached that already and still coming down about medium speed… Definitely a good year for the skiers and snowmobilers.

Hey, they even had quite a bit (for the area) of snow in Vegas!

Fun for them.

We had a very pleasant and relaxing Christmas! Christmas Eve we went over to Uncle H. and Aunt P.’s for the traditional soup/salad and/or sandwich dinner. Usually it is at Uncle J. and Aunt S.’s but Aunt S. was out of state with their children due to a death in her family. So, Aunt P. hosted this year. She is an excellent hostess and has many parties per year…generally on the holidays but for other family/otherwise occasions also. She makes the most beautiful wedding cakes with professional baker’s frosting (as her father was a professional baker)…mmmm! Actually, this was our second get together at their house as they host a Caroling Party the weekend before Christmas every year. Both were great times and we are thankful for their hospitality and love. My parents arrived late in the evening at our house. Our daughters and baby waited up for them but our eldest son “crashed” soon after arriving home from the party. (It was nearly 10pm! ;-)) The girls and the baby went to bed soon after they said “Hello” (which was around midnight). My father and I (as we do most every year) stayed up late talking…we have some really good ones on most everything under the sun! I did some last minute gift wrapping too (for him and me!). Dh and my mother crashed around 1-1:30am…Dad and I were up ’til 5am!!! =8-O Our children aren’t early risers necessarily so I had no worries they’d wake me before I’d had “enough” sleep. Christmas day dawned and I was up with it…which isn’t hard when sunrise doesn’t happen ’til 10am! LOL The children started straggling up about 10:30am or so and my parents around 11am and my dh around 11:30am…he got the most sleep of us all!! A light brunch was had of tapicoca pudding, mandarine oranges, Denver omlets, polish deer sausage, coffee, tea, orange juice…I think that was all. LOL Gift unwrapping started about 12:30pm and lasted until 2pm or a little after. We like to give the children time to open a gift or two amongst it all. How aggravating to be opening new thing after new thing and not get a chance to really check it out at the moment of excitement huh?! At 3pm I started the dishes we were bring to dinner which was at Uncle G. and Aunt J.’s. I made Sweet Potato Casserole, Winter Fruit Salad and Christmas Chocolate Cream Pie (don’t remember it’s exact name but that describes it pretty well ;-)). Those went very well with the Prime Rib, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, peas and corn, and rolls my uncle and aunt made. Friends of theirs brought the red wine. Mmm-mmm! My aunt had also made an apple pie…she and mother make the best pies (it’s the same recipe)!!! Ala’mode with a slice of Vermont Chedder, it’s wonderful! (We hail from Vermont…) Anyway, we all straggled down there between 4:30-5:30pm. (One bathroom between 9 people!!!) Dinner was at 6pm. Gifts at 7:30pm and then dessert. Guests (uncle and aunt’s friends) left and everyone flopped in the living room. I thought I’d be spending the night! LOL I was soooo tired and full! And, sick. We all (me, dh and children) had a recurrence of the cold we thought we’d beat the week before…it came back stronger this time. The headache was horrendous and I lived on Tylenol all weekend. Oooh, and those packed sinuses! But, despite that, it was a wonderful time. The 26th we all slept in again. My parents left for their home about 1pm. The rest of the afternoon I lazied around and the children played with all their new things. Saturday and Sunday we tackled putting the house back into some semblence of order. Today was more of the same…gathering up some holiday decorations, etc. I won’t take the tree down until after New Year’s but I am putting away some things like Christmas books, wrapping paper, etc. Oh, and Sun. (yesterday) I did a “post-Christmas turkey.” I love the aroma that filled the house. So, we had turkey yesterday with some left over Christmas dishes. Today, Turkey Potpie (with Scalloped Potatoes and Salad and cookies for dessert). It’s easy to appreciate turkey left overs when you had something else on Christmas Day! And, we have a big family now! One turkey really doesn’t last as long around here any more!!! LOL Where we used to have turkey *forever* it seemed, we had all we *wanted* yesterday for dinner, *just enough* for potpie today and it we’ll *stretch it* for Turkey Noodle Soup later this week with the bones for stock.

We had another short Chinook last night. The temp. rose to the high 30’s and the wind was whipping hard…those house shaking winds we get all too frequently from the mountain valley above us. The snow was melting and blowing away. It stopped some time early this morning and then it started snowing midmorning for a couple of hours…fast then slowed then stopped. So, still a lot of snow out there but doesn’t *look* like as much and not a lot of replacement…which relieved me! LOL

Well, I’m blogged out! Hope you have enjoyed my Christmas tale and weren’t bored to tears! LOL

Goodnight to all!

The Passion

Nope, haven’t seen it yet…but I nearly choked and spit juice all over my new keyboard when I read the first sentence of the second paragraph of the above article! “Braveheart” and “The Patriot” meaningless?!? Did this writer see the same movies by these names with Mel Gibson that I did?!? Hmph. They may not have as much or important of meaning but they were not meaningless.

More later about Christmas and such. Just had to get this out…

Christmas Tree by Albert Chevallier Tayler

A very warm and cozy Christmas Eve to all readers of the Hunt family blog! A joyful Christmas to you tomorrow as well! And, as I’ll be taking a “computer hiatus” through the end of the year, many prayers that you all will have a very Blessed 2004! Cherish your time with your loved ones during this special time of year…hold them close…and thank God for putting you in each other’s lives. Thank Him also for His precious gift to us…His Son Jesus! If you are a believer, thank Him also for making you a part of His family! How merciful, good and caring He is to His children!

ps - It has finally stopped snowing!!! About midnight or 1am this morning. It sure is pretty out there… The children are going out to “swim”. LOL It’s up to our oldest child’s waist and over our 3yo son’s head! The temp. has dropped though so they won’t be out there long. That’s ok because we’re going to bake Christmas cookies (and eat them! ;-))and drink hot chocolate and read Christmas stories in front of the fire. Whee!

Our eldest son (3yo) is *dashing* (his word…tis the season lol) through the house singing at the top of his voice, “…cookies, egg nog, apple pie…spending time with those we love!” Sooo sweet! Of all the phrases he could have picked up from the Little People Christmas movie, I’m glad it was this. ;-D

Well, one project accomplished! A big relief to me and an even bigger load off my dh back. Finally, finally, finally one of our ‘Burbans is running! It’s been a really, really long time since we had reliable family transportation. I can’t even think about how long either of those has been sitting around not running…toooo frustrating! Both, bought on seperate occasions (actually, one was traded for some work dh had done for a guy), were supposed to run well when we got them. (Dh isn’t a mechanic…he only plays one on TV. LOL Actually, he’s very good at it but it’s not his profession.) It’s just, buying used vehicles, one can just never tell until you have it in your possession for a while exactly how “ok” it is. Excuse me, can we take this home and drive it for a month to work out the bugs/to see if it’s a lemon before we purchase it? — no way, won’t happen. The one that’s finally, finally, finally up and running turns out had a cracked head in the engine and a few other resulting things from us driving it for a few weeks in that condition and then it sat for…I’m too embarrassed to say…until we had the funds to fix it. It now has a new engine and all the other necessary things to go along with it…I haven’t any idea what all that is and I’m half afraid of processing the receipts for it all and finding out!!!…and dh took it on it’s test drive last night doing all the proceedures one has to do to a new engine. Hurray! Except for going to the Referee Facility to have it IMed (since it has swapped out engine, you have to go directly to the Muni to get the emission tests done), it’s ready to roll! It needs some body work but cosmetics are “extra.” I don’t care how it looks just so long as it is safe and reliable and accommodates our whole family all at once!!! Actually, dh has already started the body work…bondo and primer fumes were wafting in from the garage door last night…smells that were acceptable and far from annoying knowing that the thing *runs* now!!! Can you tell I’m so very pleased and excited!!! Let me add a few more exclamation points…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah, the relief is sweet (and necessary).

We were all a little under the weather this weekend. I thank God it was a mere cold - sore throats, stuffy sinus, clogged ears, achy head, etc. - rather than the flu or something. No fever or chills or joint pains. This was a case of “I’ve been sicker so deal with it and move on” and truly, with all that’s going on around here, that is something to praise God for! He knows what we can handle and what we can’t…

Good things are happening around here. Finally, after some hard years, there is light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! Perhaps I’ll share a “testamonial” sometime… At the moment though, Q. is very unhappy and I have to run.

I had a feeling that the Chinook was the “calm before the storm” so to speak. The temp. dropped Tues. night and it started snowing again…through the night. Probably got another 3-4″. Stopped snowing mid-morning. It just started snowing again a few minutes ago…who knows how much we’ll get this time.

Dh is off getting parts for one of our ‘Burbans. Hopefully, we’ll have a family vehicle up and running again soon. So much for my piddly amount of housecleaning…now I have a bunch of “garage stuff” being stored in here until the ‘Burban is fixed. Mostly, business related stuff dh doesn’t want dirty(ier). A couple racks of knife blades, etc., etc. Sigh. Good thing there are lessons to keep me as well as the children busy because I’m pretty discouraged of making any cleaning headway around here. It’s not dirty…just cluttered. Between remodeling, having no closet or whatever to put boxes in (because our unfinished basement is part of what’s being remodeled), due to an open floorplan with only two rooms upstairs besides the bathroom…well, ugh! I’m beside myself! (The kitchen, dining area and living are all open to each…so no hiding clutter behind closed doors is what I’m getting at…) I’m not naturally organized and not a neat freak buuut…I revel in a “semblence of order” at least! One of the rooms used to be the master bedroom. It is now the schoolroom and has toys stored in there too (under a shelf with a curtain coving it). I do have some things to clean up in there but it’s minor and won’t take long! Another reason to relish our lessons…I get to be in the tidiest room of the house!!! Ok, the bathroom’s tidy…but come on! It’s the bathroom…other people would appreciate using it too I’m sure. The other room is the guest room/sewing room. Right now it’s storing our new couches. Ugh. So, while I usually like going in there, it’s too cramped now too. Well, there’s no way to relay it all coherently… I’ll quit complaining and take the children and we’ll stick our noses in books. Then, they can go outside and I can… Well, I’ll think of *something* then I’m sure.