Christmas 2011

This Christmas has been kindof crazy. The month of December its self was insane since I was helping bring home the unit I work for. Somehow I managed to still get everything together for Christmas. The week of Christmas brought out a few wrenches. We managed to make it to Christmas on Ice on wednesday but thursday morning began with Giggles throwing up. And since then we each got the stomach bug in one way or another with Sassy finishing us off on the morning of Christmas. Even with all the sickness we managed to have a good Christmas. We didn't get to do all of our traditions but we did make sure and write letters to Santa and leave hime some cookies and hot chocolate(hey it was -24 that night, he needed to warm up)

The kids all enjoyed opening presents while Daddy watched on Skype, what a blessing that was. It felt almost like he was there. I am so thankful he stayed up so late to chat with the kids while they opened their presents. Although I can't wait for next year when he can be with us I think we all enjoyed this year.

Christmas in Ice 2011

One of the most beautiful things that happens up here is the all the ice sculptures. In North Pole, Alaska they do a Christmas in Ice next door to the Santa Claus House. We have made sure we have gone both years we have been here and I am always amazed by what they can do with ice.

Both years we have attended there has been a sculpture right outside the gate that has something to do with Santa. This year you could sit in his sleigh. So here are my bundled up munchkins.

Alot of the businesses around here use ice to advertise themselves. Love it, this year has been a bit rough on them though since we were averaging 20 degrees for most of December when we are usually in the single digits. Here are some of the sculptures that were in the display.

And of course they made a playground with the ice. They had multiple slides that the kids could use their sleds on or go down without. They were so fast it rattled my teeth just watching.

And of course they created merry go rounds out of ice. The younger kids loved these!!

Sassy Ballet

So we had another first today. Sassy had her first ballet recital today. I took her to the beauty salon first to let her get all prettied up. Then we ventured out to the performance. I was able to get a pic of her in costume before we got going.

And of course we had a little down time before the performance started so I had to get her lounging around.

The performance itself was great. We chose to go with a program that is religious based and she worries more about the kids enjoying themselves and having a great experience and it really showed. The kids loved it. Of course our video camera died the night before this performance so I had to adapt and overcome and used my regular camera. I will upload it to a separate post later.
The ballet praise ballet company was able to pose when the performance was finished and the group did such a wonderful job!!

Well when all was said and done she was very proud of herself and she had every right to be. She worked hard and loved doing it. I can't wait to see her spring performance!