Lisa's Log: Christmas 2019

First of all, Happy New Year!

and

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.

We had a very very very good Christmas this year! We decided to go back "home" to Alaska to spend Christmas with Steph and PeeWee. I flew up a week early (on Dec 13th) and Chuck flew up a week after me on the 20th, and then we both flew back home on the 27th.

On my first Saturday there, Steph and I spent the whole day shopping and running around. It was really cold out, but I didn't care because I was on 'Cloud 9'. I was so elated to be back in Alaska again. When I got off the plane I welcomed the cold and the snow. Everything was so familiar to me, it was weird! Granted, it was Fairbanks and North Pole, and not Wasilla, but still, it was Alaska, and I was looking at all those familiar scrubby-looking pine trees weighed down with snow, and I was taking it all in.

When I got there, the temps were in the single digits, and each day the temps crept further and further down. By the end of the week it was -28, but it got even colder during the 2nd week, down to -36.

That was cold.

On Sunday I went to church and got to see someone there from my previous congregation in Wasilla who just happened to be there. It was a totally unexpected surprise to see a familiar face, so that was really super cool!

On Monday Steph had to go back to work (through Friday), so I spent the week days keeping myself busy. I had a morning routine of cleaning something, and then when it got light outside (around 10:30), I took Lula for a walk. And then after lunch, I spent the first two and half afternoons patching up Steph's quilt. After that was done, I had to find something else to do in the afternoons, so I did some baking, and got on the piano - MY piano that I gave to her - so it was nice to get back on my own piano again.

On Thursday, they were predicting temps in the -20s for Friday, so I told Lula that I was NOT gonna take her for walk on Friday, but when Friday morning came, I got some cleaning done, it was getting light out, and I knew I had nothing else to do, so I bundled up extra well, and took Lula for a walk anyway, in that -28 degree weather. It really wasn't that bad. The trick is to bundle up really well. On this day, I decided to bring my camera and get some pictures of things that I'm not gonna see here in Granger, Indiana.

Lula was really really good for me when we went for walk. I was nervous about taking her out with no leash, but since she pulls, Steph explained it's not a good idea to have her pulling on the leash when you're walking on the ice. That made a lot of sense to me. Luckily Lula's really good about not running away.

And she also knew exactly which way to go. Steph showed me the route before I took her myself, but I knew that if I got lost, all I had to do was follow Lula.

She likes to run ahead, but she doesn't let you get out of her sight. If she gets too far ahead, she looks back and waits for you to catch up.

Such a good puppy!

And she's also very good at coming back to you if you call her! And that was very important when we had to cross the road.

She was so cute! She would get so excited and romp around in the snow and on the hills.

Anyhoo, as I said, on Friday it was -28 degrees out, but after Lula led me back to her house, I still felt warm enough to walk to the Santa Claus house, which was only an extra 10-15 minutes of walking. Chuck was due to get there that afternoon, and he doesn't like going to the Santa Claus house, so I left Lula at home and took the extra walk to the Santa Claus house, just because I knew it was probably my only chance of going there.

I was really surprised that there were hardly any people there, especially being just a few days before Christmas.

I was hoping to take a picture of a bunch of kids hovering around Santa, but strangely, I felt like I was almost the only customer in there. Both Mr. and Mrs. Claus were there, but I felt too weird taking a picture of them with no one else around, so I didn't.

So anyhoo, Chuck got there Friday late afternoon, so it was good to have him there. Shadow warmed up to him pretty quick.

On Saturday, Steph took us to see her work station at UAF.

Assistant to the Dean, you know!

Then we went to Creamer's Field and made our own ornaments.

Made from a real Alaskan birch tree!

While we were there, they were offering free "solstice tours", because it was the solstice that day.

I kinda wanted to take the tour, but I didn't know how long it lasted, and it was really cold that day, so I didn't pursue it. Now I kinda wish I had done it though.

So we went outside and I just took a few photos of the shortest day of the year.

On the shortest day of the year, according to a website I found, the official sunrise was at 10:58 am, and the official sunset was at 2:39 pm.

Steph told me that people up there will say "Happy Solstice" more than they say "Merry Christmas".

The winter solstice is a BIG deal to Alaskans because it means they will start gaining daylight the day after solstice. On the 22nd, they gained 4 seconds of daylight! Woo-HOO!

On the 23rd, they gained 25 seconds. Yee-HAW!

On the 24th, they gained 45 seconds. On the 25th, they gained 1 minute and 5 seconds!

Each day now, they will gain more and more until June 21st.

Most Alaskans dread the summer solstice.

So on Sunday Chuck and I went to church again. We were hoping to visit with our friend Matthew there, but he had gone to Homer for the holidays.

On Monday Steph went to work, so Chuck and I did our last-minute Christmas shopping, and then PeeWee drove up from Anchorage, so we took her and her boyfriend out for pizza.

Tuesday was Christmas Eve, and by that time we were just waiting for Christmas, so we spent the whole afternoon in a coffee shop playing a card game with PeeWee and her boyfriend.

On Wednesday, Steph's boyfriend came over in the morning. After we opened all our presents, me and Steph started cooking the ham dinner.

After eating, we all sat down and played Dungeons & Dragons.

I have never played that game before, but I was looking forward to it cuz it sounded like a lot of fun.

And it WAS a lot of fun!

I was a monk. Chuck was a forest gnome. Steph was a tiefling. PW was an elf. Steph's boyfriend was a dragonborn.

The whole thing was just really fun, but the best part was watching Steph and PW.

Steph's character had good reason to hold a grudge against PW's character and she wanted revenge against her! It was so funny!

My character was picked on for being a "goody two-shoes". (I only wanted to capture the gold so I could give it to the poor, everyone else had their own selfish motives.)

These pictures were not taken during the game, but it pretty much captures the mood of it.