Christmas Trees & Traditions

Well, we finally got our Christmas Tree. We usually get a tree by the end of the first week of December, however, this year we've been waiting (and waiting and waiting) for our new floor to get put in before we bought a tree. We had no idea how close to Christmas it ended up being. And, fortunately, we could still get a tree here in town. Even 5-6 years ago, the whole town would of been out of trees if we'd waited this long. Many stores were actually out yesterday, but we did manage to get one "Ka-ching, Ka-ching".

The previous 2 years we'd bought our tree at Home Depot. Great trees, never frozen (outdoor lots have frozen trees), half the price. And, what was even more fun, was that last year we didn't even have them unravel the net, we just grabbed one and got it home and "opened" it. That was fun! Bald spot to the back and "voila" a beautiful tree!


Really glad we did get our tree as it's been a little hard getting in the "mood" without all the decorations out. I haven't even managed to do much baking, as the contractors have been banging away on the floors this week and ripping carpet out all last week.

Now that we're in Christmas mode, we're planning on doing the usual driving around town to look at Christmas lights, either tonight or tomorrow night, that the Anchorage Daily News maps out. I'm in charge of the map, as all women should be as we drive all over the place looking at decorations, while listening to our kids whine, I mean christmas music. Oops.



In order to make the map, one has to have friends and neighbors submit your address. For several years, Bud has made a valiant attempt at getting such mention, but after receiving our electric bill for last year's display, Bud wisely has cut it back. Plus we're slowly converting our lights over to LED's.




This tree is in our front yard and is actually a tree that my husband and I "saved" when a lot by our condo (13 years ago) was being bulldozed. I had been taking our dog, Tonka, to the lot to do his business every day, carefully stepping around this tiny tree. When I saw the dozers, I hurried home grabbed a shovel and a bucket and took the tree. We then ended up renting an old homestead for a couple years and kept the tree in a bucket out front. Then when we bought our house in '97, we realized we finally had a permanent home for our tree. For the last few years, it's finally become big enough to not get completely covered in snow and, therefore, it's now our outside Christmas Tree.




This is how the house looks at the moment, though, I've just been informed by Bud that there are more lights to go up soon.





Now this is an Ice Tree, directly across the street from my house. There is no actual tree. Our neighbor is an artist and he has made this tree from beautifully crafted wood rings, fishing line and led lights. He ran water over the top on and off for several weeks to make this tree. How lucky and I!

What European City Do You Belong In......

You Belong in Paris

You enjoy all that life has to offer, and you can appreciate the fine tastes and sites of Paris. You're the perfect person to wander the streets of Paris aimlessly, enjoying architecture and a crepe.

What European City Do You Belong In?

Funny thing is, I did a Semester in Paris, many years ago. I really did love wandering the streets to see what was around the next corner while eating crepes.

Loving Knitting these Monkey Socks!

Now that the election is truly over I have been able to focus more on my knitting again, much to my families relief. Guess I'd been pretty obsessed with the election. So glad the results came out the way they did. Have a few knitting projects for the Inauguration in January, which I'm going to with my oldest son and my mother. But more about that later on. Also, will have an entry about the kitchen remodel we've been working on since July. The flooring goes in this week.

So back to the socks. After frogging an almost completed Toe-Up Jaywalker sock, my knitting buddy, Heather, aka The Wandering Stitch, suggested I try the Monkey Sock Pattern from Knitty. It's a very fun pattern to do.

Originally, my plan was to do find another toe-up sock like the Boyfriend socks I'd done before, but without having to carry around a cable needle with me everywhere. Lost a cable needle that had belonged to my grandmother. Bummer, but have a lot more of her knitting stuff to remind me of her.

So, I'd picked the Jaywalker toe-Up version, after reading many positive reviews in Ravelry. This pattern just didn't work for me. I kept it up anyways, because I felt maybe I was missing something. NOPE. Got to the point I couldn't even pick the project up anymore.

That's when Heather came to the rescue. These aren't toe-up, but I have a pretty good idea about how long I can make these socks after getting one almost complete Jaywalker.



I've also completed two more hats for my boys.

Visiting the SF Bay Area

Down in the SF Bay Area for a few days for a Dr's appt on Monday and visit with family. It was actually over 80 degrees, which is 12 degrees above the normal average. Went to a Farmers market, took a nap in the sun (trying to absorb some "happy light" before heading back north), then took a ride with my mom over to Tiburon for dinner. We did some wine tasting near the restaurant and then went a boutique that had the most beautiful evening gown, strictly to admire it and then the boutique owner had me try on a $500.00 cashmere sweater. Not sure why she thought I'd be buying a $500.0 sweater though it was sweet, sweet, cashmere but I'll stick to knitting the occasional cashmere scarf and possibly picking up a much cheaper version on sale at Nordstrom or Costco.

Brought one knitting project with me, but since I was flyng the red-eye, I attempted to sleep most of the flight. I'm hoping to work on my Monkey socks, formerly the frogged Jaywalkers, on the flights back home.

I do have a FO done, but haven't managed to get a picture taken of it yet. Maybe I'll have another FO soon to share.

What I Should be When I Grow Up

You Should Be a Social Worker

You are deeply caring and empathetic. You are able to take on other people's problems as if they were your own. Sensitive and intuitive, you understand human emotions well. Helping others gives you the most joy in life. You feel like it's your purpose in life. You do best when you: - Have a lot of responsibility - Greatly impact someone's life with your work You would also be a good philanthropist or stay at home parent.

What Should You Be When You Grow Up?

My Obama Obsession or Why There's Been No New Blogs

Let me start by saying,"OMG, YES WE DID!!!". Thank you to all who helped get Barack Obama elected President of The United States.

Okay, so I've been a little (a lot, if you ask my family) obsessed with the presidential election. After the election in 2004, which I usually refer to as Black Tuesday, I realized that if I wanted my candidate elected, voting just wasn't enough anymore. Long story short, so I did and so did so many Americans, to whom I am so grateful.

In addition to my Obama Obsession, we've been remodeling our kitchen for the past 3 long months. I'll post some before and after pictures when it's all done in another couple of weeks. I'm being overly optimistic!

The only knitting I've been able to get done is the Obama hat my son's wearing. He and I will be wearing these at to THE INAUGURATION! Yep, we're going to be in Washington DC for Obama's inauguration. Might make matching mittens and scarfs, too.

One of the websites I'd been frequenting several times a day, was Nate Silver's site Fivethirtyeight.com, had consistently projecting an Obama win. I got pretty confident in mid-October and decided to get Vince and I some mileage tickets before they were all gone. Then we somehow managed to get a hotel reservation too. It's a Holiday Inn on the good side of the White House, according to a friend of mine that went to Georgetown.

I've never been to DC and we're very excited. We've contact Senator Lisa Murkowski's office to try and get tickets to events and tours around the capital.

During this obsession, I was encouraged to start a Facebook Page. I haven't really spent a lot of time on it, except to and video's from Youtube that I loved. Hope to get this up to speed too, know that I can finally breath easy again.

Here's to Change we can believe in!

Watching the VP Debate at Bear Tooth Theater

I had the privilege to watch the VP Debate at The Bear Tooth Theater Pub. A friend of mine made this video of the reactions we Alasan's had while watching. Though the tickets were free to anyone, there seemed to be many more Obama people than there were McCain people. It was nice to be in such a large group of people (there's more seating upbove) that also could see beyond Sarah's "folksie charm".

After the debate, which was hosted by The UAA Debate Team, there was an opportunity for people to come up and speak about their candidate. We were a little light on the Mccain/Palin side, but it was interesting to hear the few that were brave enough to speak. Here's some video.



Todays paper had pictures of local McCain supporters at The Peanut Farm (a block from The Bush Company) and McGinley's Irish Pub (owned by a local Republican Politician). The Peanut Farm is a favorite of the "Joe Six-Pack" crowd, wink wink. Oh you betcha!

Here's two more videos from my friend from the two recent rally's.