A Perfect Day

Hey guys!  Sorry it has been awhile.  We haven't had much that was very blog worthy lately, at least that we bothered to get some good pictures of.  We had a good Thanksgiving and we hope you all did too!  We spent Thanksgiving with friends from church in Palmer.  It was a nice night.  The ski season has also started for Drew so we have been down to Girdwood more often for skiing.  It's been good to see friends there as well.  Drew and I have been working opposite schedules lately, which makes it hard to get out and do much.  But this past week I ended up with a freak 6 days off a work in  row, so we actually got out and had some fun together!    Our day started with Drew making his breakfast over the fire.  Drew has been talking about cooking over the fire ever since we got an apartment with a wood burning fireplace.  He's done it a few times now and it has turned out great!

 Drew is a great cook.  He made eggs, smoked bacon, and sourdough pancakes.  Drew has a sourdough starter he started since we got to Alaska so he is always making pancakes or biscuits or bread from it.

I love that he ate it off his Alaska plate.  I bought this plate for him while I was stocking my first apartment I had without roommates.  I found it at DI and knew he would love it.  Whenever he came over to eat he always ate on his Alaska plate.  Now we are finally here and have seen some of those things on the plate in real life.

 After breakfast we cleaned up the whole house, which was so nice.  I rarely have time to clean the whole thing from top to bottom at the same time anymore.  Then we headed out in search of a Christmas tree.  We decided to cut one down ourselves this year for fun.  Everyone should cut their own Christmas tree at least once in their life, why not while we are in Alaska?  We headed down the Seward Highway and didn't get very far before we had to get out and start taking pictures.  We take this road at least once a week, but we never remember our camera.  Some of the ice had melted since the last time we were on this road, but most of the Turnagain Arm is still frozen.  I love that by the end of this year I will have pictures of this road in every season.  It looks so different each time.

 Despite the fact that we were losing what short amount of daylight we had fast, we ended up pulling over on the side of the road and post holing through the snow for a closer look of all the ice.  We were really surprised to find that once we stopped, we could see and hear that out in the middle of the arm the ice was moving.  It was amazing how fast it was moving, but when we were driving along in the car we couldn't see that it was moving at all.  We would have missed all that beauty if we hadn't stopped to see it.  Someone once said in church that they get good ideas for talks when they drive down the Seward Highway.  Maybe that could make a good metaphor for a talk one day.  :)

 By the time we got far enough South for it to be OK to cut a Christmas tree, it was already starting to get dark.  We strapped on our snowshoes and went for it anyway.  We haven't been snowshoeing yet this season and it was so fun and so pretty that I kept forgetting we were supposed to be looking for a tree.  I wish I took good pictures like Drew does, but he looked so cute I had to put my fuzzy pictures in too.

 I love that this bridge we crossed was almost completely filled to the top with snow!

 After a little while we finally chose our favorite tree and got to cutting.  I am glad I took a few swings with the ax before Drew went at it with the saw, because it was a pretty thin little tree and it didn't take more than about 60 seconds to cut it down.

 I wrapped up the tree while Drew made sure we cut down to the base of the tree in the snow.  I was pretty proud of how light and easy it was to carry.  I carried it back to the car under one arm!

 With the Christmas tree on board we were able to head back up to Girdwood to visit our friends Rich and Christie.  They had a little get together for Christie's birthday at their cozy little house.  Girdwood in the snow is really beautiful.  All the houses are just made to be covered with snow, and all the trees look prettier with mounds of snow all over them.  Drew's boss from over the summer came up with his wife and we had a great curry made by Rich.  We're glad for good friends and good food!

We got home and put up the Christmas tree and gave it some water.  We haven't decorated our little tree yet, but when we do, we'll make a post about it for sure!  Hope you all are having fun getting into the spirit of the season!