and it's all ice...

They assembled. I laid on the couch.

Christmas day

One of the funnest parts of Christmas day was going on a walk. Very atypically of Kodiak, we have snow, like actual semi-fluffy white stuff. Normally it just turns to slush, quickly followed by ice. This year, so far, it has remained in its original form. The trails are quite nice, not icy at all. The snow is also still clinging to the trees, which is likewise unusual, as it often just blows off.

Candy and a box

Kids are funny. You never know what they will like. Abby's favorite gifts were candy, a box she can stuff herself in, and glittery red shoes.

Abby inherited her love of boxes from Lucky, who enjoyed curling up in them, or scratching them, depending on his mood.

Advent calendar

Love the nose wrinkles!

Bell ringing

So, what is Christmas really about? Many others have answered this, so I will not repeat, but I will say what has been important for me this year. Obviously, Abby. Beyond my darling stinky, we all volunteered to ring the bell for the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army has helped Shawen, Abby, and I immensely, in many different ways. To give back, we rang the bell once a week for several weeks and raised about $250. That's a lot of dimes, quarters, and dollars.

It was great to see how responsive most Kodiakians are to the bell ringing. I was often surprised to see who would drop in some spare change. Teenagers, fishermen, all walks of life. The money that we helped raise goes towards operating not just the church, but transitional housing, food bank, the thrift store, the facility itself which is used for Al-Anon, AA, and other meetings, etc. The Salvation Army is called an army because they work to help people, not just preach! It is not about just attending service once a week, but reaching out to the community to make a tangible (and I guess intangible) difference.

Insane surfer at Mill Bay beach on Christmas Eve morning.

The weather outside was frightful, and the air only mildly delightful!

We went to four holiday parties last weekend. I brought my camera, but only took one photo. I tell myself before I leave that I will take photos, as people pictures are good, and showing good times is good. However, I always end up being too timid to get in people's face and start snapping away.

Love coming here at night at low tide. It's fun creepy. It was very drippy and slushy this night. I was very glad I went on a walk.

Date Night

Through a series of miscommunications, Abby and I ate dinner at Henry's together by ourselves. It was a lot of fun. She actually was well-behaved, until the very end when she started smacking our neighbor in the head with her hat. A smile, I'm sorry, and Merry Christmas healed all injury.

Anchorage

A few weeks ago I went to Anchorage to see a neurologist about my back. I haven't written about it because it was not good news. The trip to Anc. was great. I stayed with a friend, which was great. I got to meet her family, and it was nice not staying in a hotel. I also attended a paper tear repair workshop. I was planning on going up, and then saw that the workshop was being offered, so I went a day early and got one more skill under my belt!

Back to the back - I have a degenerating bulging disc. The bulge, if it was giving me leg pain, could be "fixed". The degenerative part, cannot be. He recommended fusion, which is a major surgery. I have proven I do not do well with surgery. It would take the average person 6 weeks to heal. It would take me 6 months, if it didn't kill me (literally)!

What does this mean? Well, I cannot have more children (between the complicated C-section and the disc, no go). Unless that has been taken away from you, you cannot imagine how it feels. And I have guarenteed pain in my future.

Merry Christmas

I hope your holidays are snuggly warm!

Last Ones

Last ones for the season. I finished this year and will be moving on to the next...

This was my first wall piece - the ones that exploded! It was supposed to be three tiles, joined together to make a vertical Japanese style scroll. I learned a lot just doing this one tile.

An octopus? That was what was suggested, which really has my mind turning for my next production set.

That's not what this was about though. I took the perfect classic form and added the crazy handles and patterns to represent the complexity of the universe, which at times seems like perfect order, and at other moments complete chaos.

Tis the season

Tis the season to be joyful. Potty learning, wow, that was easy. I didn't have to do a thing really. I was dreading cleaning poopy out of the princess potty. I never had to. I thought for sure there would be lots of accidents, and there was only a few. I thought for sure it would take effort. Besides saying"good job Abby," I didn't exert myself at all. Nice. I owe it all to the amazing and magnificent, incredibly intelligent and beautiful, the most awesomely awesome human on earth, Miss Abigail.

She loves looking at this blog by the way. She likes seeing pictures of herself. Understandable.

Orpheum Theatre

Piugta said the camera took good pics in low light. You're oh so totally wrong, it takes GREAT pics in low light. The top one was without a flash. Thay may look like it's light out, but it's dark. Barely a hint of light left. It was about 5pm. (I even caught Rusty taking a smoke break.)

1st picture

Here the first picture with my new camera. Some really awesome people gave me a a digital Nikon D40 SLR camera!!! It didn't function well for them, but I assure you, it's awesome for me!

l'art moderne

Abby's drawings! The lines in the mouth are teeth, which appear again in the person on the far bottom right, and the square towards the bottom is his belly button!

On the left she tried to trace her hand.

Phone images

It seems like I take my best pictures of Kodiak on my stupid cell phone, when I don't have my really crappy camera.

Love the dying yellowed grass.

Just on a stroller ride after work, when there was light after work. Must have been late Sept. or early October before the time change.

Love seeing the sun sets....and my workplace too!

Dreams

I had the most lovely dream. I was back home, my childhood home on Park, and after a heavy late afternoon summer rain, I decided to go on a walk. I walked around the boulevard and back through the alley, and at the approach of home I noticed I got bit on my forehead my a mosquito. I walked in the house, said hi to my mom and Debbie M. and looked in the mirror in the bathroom to see I had a lot more than one mosquito bite!

Weekend!

Shawen spilled a full glass of carbonated beverage, it went e v e r y w h e r e. The two ladies yucking it up next to us thought that was hilarious. Maybe too much wine...

Out of focus, but evidence of first chop stick attempt!

Sacked in front of the boob tube.

The family had yet another fabulous weekend. As mentioned, Saturday was the bazaar. Then Sat. night I went with the girls to see Harry Potter. On Sunday we went to church, which I am really thankful for, then Shawen took Abby swimming, followed by the sushi at the Powerhouse. That night after Abby went to bed we watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, during which Abby woke up. She snuggled with dad and Venus and watched Monty Python for a little bit. We are raising a Brit com fan apparently! We will get her on Black Adder next.

Let's see, Monday was a doctor visit. Abby was VERY brave. She got a shot and a prick to the finger blood draw. All she said was "ouch". Super cute as always. After that we rang the bell for the Salvation Army at Safeway, but by that time her "cuteness" had worn off, she was tired. She said Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for awhile, but then switched to Happy Halloween, followed by NO. People thought that was funny. She made it through grocery shopping, but by the time we got home, it was meltdown. She was way over-tired. This summer, she stopped taking naps, but now with darkness she gets tired, but is stubborn about taking a nap sometimes, and on those days by 8pm she's a little mess.

Sold Out

My Kodiak wares sold out at the bazaar - awesome! Funny enough, not even one Gothic pimp cup sold! Everyone commented on them, but were not brave enough to take the plunge into utter coolness. The photo was just one hour into the bazaar, when I was almost sold out....

Gothic pimp cup.