Stirber Christmas Vacay: The First Third

Greetings from Alaska! It's warming right up so the snow is kind of melting, making all kinds of nice slick spots. We like to keep it interesting for our visitors anyway, so what the heck!!! We're having a really great time with the grandparents. We've gone all kinds of places, had all kinds of adventures. Let the photo documentation begin...

Clay had a Christmas performance at his little preschool church on Sunday... here's a short clip

We have also had a lot of snow (that is melting today... UGH! I hate melting snow.. it makes ice and ice makes driving difficult). Clayton made the kids some snow caves, a little talent he picked up last year at Arctic Survival. They loved them!!

Grandma and Grandpa are being very sporting about Alaska in the winter. We went skiing on Sunday. Grandpa had a tough time but Grandma picked it right back up. The kids were LOVING having her on the slopes. As for Grandpa, well, it didn't go so well. He even had a lesson which also didn't go well. Actually, it went poorly. He got fired from the lesson by an old-time ski instructor. Sad. Embarrassing. Not entirely surprising... He was a good sport about it (ultimately) and when Sports Authority refunded 100% of his ski rental fee for the week, he got over it.

Now, as for Michael. For those of you who don't know, he had been growing his hair out since his retirement from the Guard. He didn't cut it but once in over a year. It was getting a little out of hand... in fact, his kids were sort of giving him a hard time about it (just a little). SO, Michael and I had a little trip to the salon. He ended up getting a really professional looking hair cut but retained some of the length in the front. It looks better.. but I think he's going to forget to get it cut in a few weeks.

Before.

During.

After. So dapper, so professional!

So, needless to say, we're having a great time with the Stirbers. Today has been a baking day. Tomorrow we're headed to Girdwood for a day of skiing (all of us but you-know-who). Will take the camera and post pictures later :) Oh, and Miss Karen is coming for Christmas (did I already say that??) and comes tomorrow night. Good times at the Johnson compound!