Christmastime

Well, here I am.. end of December, wrapping up our third Christmas in Alaska. We had a white Christmas, no big surprise :) It was a COLD, white Christmas (like -15). We did lots of fun things in the days leading up to Christmas and after.. I'll just give you a pictorial with commentary.

Kara making her stage debut as "Elf #4" in the 2nd grade Christmas play. For some unknown reason, she took her script to the microphone for all her lines.. even though she had them memorized. Another one of life's mysteries..

A few days before Christmas, we headed to Girdwood, Alaska, for two fun-filled days of skiing. We stayed the night at the resort which is always a hit with the kids because they can ski and swim in the same day. They are really amazing to me, how they pick right back up on the skis every season. Kara is our daredevil (Clayton's child) while Clay is our creature of habit (my child). It definitely took Clay longer to get his mojo back trying new runs but they did great. I so wish I had learned to ski before age 36.

The view from our room at Alyeska.

Heading out for day 2 of skiing.. it was only about 2-3 F that day.. warm if you can stay moving, freezing cold if you don't.

The boy loves his momma.. What can I say?

Christmas morning.. seeing the lego ship unwrapped under the tree... we are in Lego purgatory around here. Ever stepped on one barefooted? It hurts.

Kara unwrapping her sewing machine from her Grandma and Grammie. It's NOT a kid's sewing machine, for the record.

Our winter visitor, Trooper, with his chew stocking.

Traditional Christmas morning breakfast on the Christmas dishes.. egg casserole and monkey bread. Yummy, if I may say so.

Post-Christmas hike up Mt Baldy. This is a pretty mild hike in the summer but it is downright treacherous in the snow. Clayton and I have snow-shoes but the kids don't, yet.. I think we'll be getting them. It took us over an hour to get just below the summit.. it was too steep to take the kids up all the way. But it was a BEAUTIFUL day and view from the top that we made that day.

We call this move the "butt sled". This is how they got down. Sledding on the butt. I am so proud that Clay knows the difference in spelling butt and but. He's more than happy to share that with anyone who cares to know. Clayton also taught them how to do a farmer's nose blow or something equally nasty. Awesome.

Well, I hope this post finds you at the end of a great 2010. It has been a great year for us. We had so many visitors this summer and fall/winter. We love showing Alaska off to you.. We also got to Arizona a couple times and those vacations are always too short. We are so blessed.. It was a hard year at Elmendorf with a couple of airplane crashes, one in Clayton's attached squadron. It makes us all the more grateful for safe flights of fast gray airplanes, something we do not take for granted for us nor for our friends flying out of other bases. We are grateful for our families and for our friends. We are grateful for God's continued blessing of safety and health for the Alaska Johnsons. Book a trip out on 2011!!! We'd love to have you :)

Christmas Madness

Mid-December... must be time for a blog update. We have been running up here in Alaska. I didn't know there would be so many Christmas (or "holiday", if you're trying to be PC.. which I'm not. Ever.) activities for Kara and Clay at school!! And, ever observant mother that I am, I have been surprised several times at the last minute with concerts and plays. It will all be over today as the kids are at their last day of school before Christmas break. Whew!!!!

We started out the month with Clayton's birthday. It was a mid-level celebration for us. Neither Clayton nor myself are super big "birthday" people so sometimes we don't really celebrate like we could or should. This year, I made dinner and some of our neighbors came for dinner and cake. The kids and I gave Clayton a "sick" new snowboard (at least that's what the kid at REI assured me). He kept it instead of returning or exchanging it so that is a victory in my book. The thing is, the last new snowboard he had was one I gave him the year before we were married.. that would be 1996. So 14 years ago. He was due. I think he was really surprised and he rode it last weekend at Alyeska and Hillberg. Good times.

In addition to regular downhill skiing, I've been cross-country skiing. Clayton gave me skis last year for Christmas and I was sort of irritated because I felt like he was implying that I wasn't exercising enough. Well, I found a bunch of friends who skied or at least were willing to try and I was hooked. I've been probably 10-12 times already this season and I'm loving it!! If you come visit us in the winter, I will take you out. SO. MUCH. FUN.

So I'm going to post some pictures of the concerts... But I must tell you about Clay's not-so-good day last week. He has been telling us lately that he hates his name because kids have been making fun of him at school. Apparently, it all started with the dreidel song "Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of "CLAY"". Yes, that is his thorn in the flesh right now. We have tried to talk him off the ledge and were met with some moderate success.. UNTIL the kindergarten "Holiday" concert... the kindergartners were singing their dreidel song and when it came to the "clay" part, they all turned around and looked at Clay. If you know him, you know that Clay doesn't deal real well with public humiliation. He did not melt down or start whacking at anyone but he did give me the death glare through the rest of the song. His teacher was mortified. It was actually pretty funny but we can't laugh about it with him yet... And that was also the day that he carried on a fine family tradition of drug trouble. Yes, he was caught with a cough drop at school. Fortunately, he wasn't intentionally smuggling it or trying to sell it, but he did have to go to the nurse's office (because what if someone stole the cough drop and died from the deadly poison it contains!?!??!) where the nurse called me and flogged me over the phone. I have now promised to take all medicines into the nurse myself and not put them in my kids' pockets for prn dosing. Oops.

I'll now leave you with pictures from the above said adventures/activities..

Clayton and his white cake with white frosting birthday cake. I will not be accused of being a cake-lady, in case you're wondering...

Random pic of my xc skis.. do you love the light at 9:30 in the morning??

Kara and her choir on their "tour" of Eagle River.. First stop: Walmart. Awesome.

My stupid camera kept focusing on other kids but there's Kara in the pinky-purple hat.

Clay at his Christmas concert.. before he got all postal about the making-fun...

Clay and his snowman outside his classroom. You can tell the sparkle has left his eyes :(

Kara at her nighttime choir concert.... We learned that if you don't show up to these gigs at least 30 minutes early, you WILL stand in the back.

I will post in the next few days something of a Christmas letter.. I think.