Happy Birthday to you, Brad!  We celebrated Brad’s 9^th birthday with a party at the local pool on December 17^th.  All I had to do was show up, buy pizza, and take pictures.  No party planning (or lack there of), no piñatas, no house to clean.  It was really a great party for me.  There were about 15 kids that came to splash in the pool and sing to Brad.  The only thing I forgot was a match to light his candle.  He had to do a “pretend blow out” after we sang.

Percy the elf showed up with birthday wishes

Decorating his cupcakes

Birthday goggles!

On his actual birthday, December 18^th, we just stayed home.  I made the traditional carrot cake and we enjoyed a relaxing sunny Sunday.  It's hard to believe my child is 9 already.

Since my last blog, we celebrated Thanksgiving and welcomed the frigid weather of Alaska.  Our Thanksgiving was spent at home with friends that came to dinner.  Alex made a great turkey, excellent stuffing, made from scratch dinner rolls, and pumpkin pie.  I made an apple pie and did the dishes.  Our friends brought sweet potatoes (with toasted pecans) and roasted carrots.  They also brought the game Pie Face, which the kids enjoyed.  It was the next day when Alex said that we never took the time to give thanks.  I think I may have silently been thankful for my family and friends.

We enjoyed a beautiful show of the northern lights the morning of Thanksgiving.  They were really bright and danced and leaped in the sky.  The colors were only varying shades of green—no reds or oranges like all the pictures show.  We have a window in our room that faces north and every trip to the bathroom at night makes us take a detour to look for the lights.  They aren’t out very often.  Or maybe they are and those are the nights I don’t have to pee. 

As I write this, the Midwest is bathed in very cold weather and snowstorms.  But it came here first!!!  As I was getting ready to drive Brad to the bus stop one cold morning, I got a call from his friend’s mom saying school was cancelled (his school is working on a better notification system).  -44 with the wind-chill is too cold even for Alaskans. That day was just a delay, but it didn’t get much warmer.  We spent about 2 weeks with temperatures barely getting to 0 and some days the high was -9.  And then it warmed up—to 36 degrees.  The weather is quite finicky and has been really affected by global warming. 

I think the finicky weather can be blamed on Alex.  He went out and bought a snow mobile/snow machine/snow go.  And the snow promptly went away after he drove it home.  Well, that’s not entirely true, it got so cold that walking to the car was a risk for frostbite, THEN the snow melted.  We have been out on the machine and it'll be a good way to escape town on the weekends, as long as it's not too dark, too windy, or too cold.

Local Ski-doo dealership

The hospital has a few parking spots that are close to outlets so one can plug in their vehicle.  Alex has been leaving quite early so he can get one of these prime spots.  He has a long extension cord in the back seat of his truck and plugs it in.  It makes a big difference, and I’m surprised more people in Michigan didn’t drive around with a plug hanging out of the front of their trucks.  Some people here keep the extension cord attached all the time and wrap the excess around the mirror.  

7:58 am

 

The cold has also solidified the river and lakes.  There have been people that have ventured out on the big river with trucks and snow machines.  I’m not that brave.  Yet.  There is an ice road in Bethel that the city actually maintains.  The city is very spread out and the roads curve and twist. We are really close to most places, but it takes twice as long to get there as it should.  There is a real road that is a great short cut but at some point in the recent past, the people who owned the road (or the land that the road is on) didn’t want any more traffic.  They have blocked the road to public use and I’ve been told that they stood with guns ready to shoot if people tried to drive on the road.  So people just drive around the property across a lake in the winter.  Of course, in the summer, the lake is not used for transport, except for the occasional floatplane that lands on it.

Brad has successfully completed swimming lessons.  He got a good report card, and the only thing that didn’t have a check mark for mastery was the “look before you leap” category.  He’s quite oblivious to a lot of things, so we need to work on that.  He’s a decent swimmer and I hope he continues to enjoy it.  The pool here is a great thing and provides a good opportunity for exercising.  We have to time our arrival so we don’t have to share to pool with the water zumba or the water polo classes.

It is reassuring to know that we will celebrate the winter solstice next week.  On that day, the sun will come up at 10:57 and go down at 4:33.  Surprisingly, there is light in the sky until almost 6:00pm.  But the dark in the morning is a hard burden to bear.  I’ve been taking Vitamin D, but I don’t think it's working.  I’m tired all the time and I’ve become a real grouch.  (Some may argue I’ve always been a grouch!).  It’s hard to get out of bed when the sky is black.  It’s easy to sleep until 10:00 and that’s what I do most weekends.  Remind me of the long and dark days next summer when I complain that the perpetual sunlight keeps me awake.

And the coffee machine is up and running.  Alex spent quite a long time making a cabinet for the espresso machine to sit on.  Then he took a long time soldering the new copper pipes and and parts.  Then he spent a considerable amount of time trying to drain all the water out of the pipes so he could attach the new pipes to the old ones.  He had to run a small plastic hose (through holes he drilled through the cabinets) to the espresso machine so it had water to steam and froth the milk.  This coffee machine has caused more problems than I’d like to recall, but it makes really good coffee.

Yes, he sweat the pipe in the kitchen

 I’ve been told several times since moving to Bethel that we need to get out of town and go to Anchorage for the weekend.  There are several flights to Anchorage every day, so finding a seat isn’t a problem.  The cost of flights tends to go up the closer you get to the day you want to fly.  But we bit the bullet and headed 400 miles east to the big city a few weekends ago.  We did significant damage at Costco and again at a popular outdoor store that had insulated Carhartt bibs, and a bunch of other stuff. I even had my picture taken with Santa.  The reason I picked the weekend that I did was because NMU was playing UAA.  (If you’ve seen my Facebook post, you will know that NMU won).  There were about 10 other NMU fans in the crowd, which I thought was pretty good.  Who the heck is NMU fan in Alaska??  One couple has attended every game Northern has played in Alaska since 2004.  I’d call that dedication because not many people vacation here in the winter.

Getting on the plane in Bethel

Getting off the plane in Anchorage

The only moose we saw was at the airport

I'm not related to them.

We're actually at a museum.

This was some world record grizzly.  Again, dead animal in the airport.

We will be celebrating Christmas in both Indianapolis and Tucson with Alex’s family.  I think traversing the continental U.S. is a grand thing to do in 10 days.  Spending time with family is important.  So to all of you and your families, the Alaska Judy family wishes you a Merry Christmas and a great start to the new year.  (We will be in Anchorage on Dec 31 watching fireworks).

Hoar frost