The Haves and the Have Nots

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In this house it's all about who has the Kong bone.








































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Waxing Gibbous Again

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The last Waxing Gibbous moon of 2009. Taken at 12:47pm today.

Send Me an Angel

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The other night Uyaana and I were watching the 80's movie, The Wizard. It's a corny movie about video games. It's only saving grace is that it stars Christian Slater who I always thought was dreamy. Anyway, one of the songs on there was Real Life's song "Send Me an Angel" and Uyaana really liked the song and asked if we could download it. He has been listening to it over and over and over on his new iPod Touch that he got for Christmas. I think he's an 80's boy at heart. :)



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Merry Christmas

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From my family to yours, may you all have a very merry and blessed Christmas.


Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. 11 For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest,and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"
Luke 2:10-14




The Huron Carol sung in Wyendat/Huron, French and English.

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Go Tell it on the Mountain

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Last Saturday the 1st Baptist Church of Kotzebue had their children's Christmas program. Here is part of it.



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The LAST Bazaar

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Ok. I promise these are the last of the bazaar photos as this was the last holiday bazaar of the year. It was held at the Boy's and Girls Club on Saturday Dec. 19th.


Here are some of the photos from my table. I am pretty much wiped out of inventory now.




More hats.




This is new...and eskimo hunter cross stitch.




More jewelry.




A Chihuahua. Oops...he's not for sale.




The young lady in the middle is Carrie. She said to me "yopur not putting this in the blog are you??" Guess what?




These tables had all sorts of stuff.




Wolf pelts and canvas mukluks.




Christine's pickled salmon bellies. Yum!




pendants made with mammoth ivory.





Tiny little handmade sleds.




Mammoth ivory bracelets.




Fox hats made by Sophie.




Yarn socks! Looooove yarn socks!

So that's it. No more holiday bazaar photos til next year.

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Uyaana's Christmas Program

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Here is part of the 4th grades Christmas program for those of you who are interested in seeing it.



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Happy Belated Winter Solstice

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I have been a bit under the weather the last couple days so I haven't posted much. Yesterday was the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. We had about 1 hour and 37 minutes of sun above the horizon (just barely above) and about 5 hours and 47 minutes of visible light. When I say visible light you can imagine evening dusk for most for that. Today is 35 seconds longer than yesterday, the sun will rise at 12:57pm and set at 2:36pm. Tomorrow will be 1 minute and 24 seconds longer than today.



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Gonna Warm Up and Storm

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Because of the wind chill it's REALLY cold now....




...but it's gonna warm up and storm.

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Christmas Quiz

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Here is a recyling of one of those email quiz thingers that's making the rounds.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?:
Wrapping presents is not one of my most favorite activities. I love cute gift bags. They look nice and are easy but you can't only have a bunch of gift bags under the tree, that would be lame.

2. Real tree or Artificial?: Real Live Tree.
Growing up we always had a real tree. I used to say that I would NEVER have a fake tree. Well, for the last 6 years I have had a fake tree. Go figure.

3. When do you put up the tree?:
Shortly after Thanksgiving.

5. Do you like eggnog?:
Eggnog is N.A.S.T.Y. The only way you could make it worse is if you put raisins in it. Uyaana loves it though.

6. Favorite gift received as a child?:
I think one of my favorite presents was the year both me and my cousin, Kami, got Big Wheels for Christmas. I loved my Big Wheel.

7. Hardest person to buy for?
Probably my mom.


8. Easiest person to buy for?
Uyaana is both hard and easy to buy for. I said to him this year, "What do you want for Christmas?" He said "Games" I said "That's all, just games??" He said "Yea, DS games and Wii games." So on one hand he is pretty easy because all he wants are games, but on the other hand he's hard because I refuse to get him only games. The boy is getting some books whether he likes it or not.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?
I think I used to. I still might but if I do it's still packed away.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?
Every year I always have grand plans to send out Christmas cards. If they get out on time it's a genuine Christmas miracle. I haven't sent any out yet....because I lost them. Yep, I have no idea where I put them. I'll have to figure something out.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?
I don't think I have ever received a "worst gift".

12.Favorite Christmas Movie?
A Christmas Story. "You'll shoot your eye out, kid."

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?
This year I started in October getting a thing here and a thing there.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?
Haha...haven't we all. Isn't recycling supposed to be good. It's green, right?

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?
Standing Prime Rib Roast. I make it every year for Christmas Dinner. I think this year I am going to make it for Christmas Eve dinner instead and eat Christmas dinner at Church.

16. Lights on the tree?
Of course lights on the tree. What kind of question is that. I like the LED lights. They are nice and bright and the colors are sharper.

17. Favorite Christmas song?
Oh Holy Night and the Huron Carol

18. Hmm...where did 18 go??

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer?:
dasher, dancer, prancer, vixen, comet, cupid, donner and blitzen…and Rudolph,

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?
We have an angel from Annalee Dolls. It was made before Annalee outsourced to China.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?
Christmas morning, although my family has always had a tradition of allowing the children to open one present on Christmas Eve.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year?
Christmas commercials on TV.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color?
Theme??? If it looks nice I like it. I don't really have a theme.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner?
Wasn't this asked already?

25. What do you want to do for Christmas this year?
Umm...the same thing I always do...wake up, drink coffee, watch my boy open his presents....oh and have peace on Earth, good will towards men!

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Bad Dog

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This gingerbread house....




...was EATEN by this dog. She's a baaaaaad dog...and she knows it.

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We Didn't Realize........

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Last month I wrote a post about campmor.com. Basically the jist of it was that I used to LOVE Campmor, but they had recently, without notice, changed their shipping policy. They adopted UPS as their primary shipper and ship things UPS Ground....except to Alaska. There is no UPS Ground shipping to Alaska. So that means if you live in Alaska what they call "Standard Mail" now comes USPS Parcel Post instead of USPS Priority Mail. The problem is USPS Parcel Post from the Lower 48 is not-so-fondly referred to as "The Slow Boat From China". It can take at least 4 weeks to arrive. Not good.

So anyway I wrote the blog post about my disgust with Campmor's new policy and received a lot of responses. One person offered to bring it up with a manager next time they visited the retail store in New Jersey. Today that person left me a comment....

Anonymous said...

"Regarding an earlier email about Campmor...I visited the store on saturday (while home at my parents) and mentioned to them the issues of delay and shipping/returns/service to AK and especially outside Anchorage. I also said that the blogs were recommending Cabella's instead of Campmor due to shipping policies.
They hadn't realized the problems and were going to address it ?!? Anyway, it was the head guy at the customer service counter, so something positive may come out of it for you."

The key phrase there is "hadn't realized". Of course they didn't realize because they hadn't given one moments thought to Alaska when they made that decision. They aren't the only ones either. We get that all the time. Some of it is silly stuff, like and ebay seller saying that he only shipped to the continental United States. I told the guy that last time I checked I DID live in North America and it's not my fault that he didn't know the difference between "continental" and "contiguous". Or LL Bean once telling me that the reason they canceled my order was because they don't ship outside the United States.

Sometimes "We Didn't Realize" is more serious. Take for example, No Child Left Behind. One of the rules says that all school teachers must be highly qualified. Sounds like a great thing, right? But what if you have a rural school with two teachers? Many schools in Alaska fit that description. Those two teachers must be "highly qualified" in math, science, reading, social studies, etc because they teach them all. It's hard enough to be "highly qualified" in one subject much less five. NCLB also said that instructional aides must have an associates degree. Do you think they were able to find people with associates degrees willing to work for $12-$14 an hour in villages like Kivalina, Igiugig, Allakaket, and Tuntutuliak? Um, no. It wasn't until the bill was passed and all hell broke loose that anyone in Washington saw what NCLB meant for Alaska. They didn't realize.

People don't realize a lot of things about Alaska. It's not dark 6 months of the year. No, eskimos do not live in houses made out of ice. The place is not infested with polar bears. No there are no PENGUINS here. Yes, we use AMERICAN money.

I guess my point is that it is interesting how as Alaskans, we often feel that we are under the radar. This, depending on the situation, is not always a bad thing. I know most of us take pride in our uniqueness, but there are times when it can be a major inconvenience. No one really thinks much about us when it comes time to make decisions. That leaves us to suffer with the consequences until they get things sorted out....if they ever do. People kind of forget that we exist...either that or they believe that we are an island in the ocean due south of San Diego and to the west of Hawaii.

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Checkin' In

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My last Algebra class was today. The final exam is on Wednesday. I have an 88% so far in the class....a very hard fought 88%. The final is multiple choice so there is hope for me yet.

Jury duty tomorrow. Yeehaw.

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Boy and Dogs Playing Out

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More Bazaar

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Just when you thought you were all done having to look at holiday bazaar photos....here's some MORE!


More knitted goodies. I bought the dark colored pair of yarn socks near the top of the photo. I love yarn socks.




Hand beaded angel pin.




These knitted gloves were not on the table long before they were all gone.











Here is Corina. Her husband, Lance, is responsible for single handedly keeping the fox population of the Northwest Arctic in check.




Kookie with wolf and wolverine skins.




Here is my table.




Mary and her beyooootiful afghans.




So...one more holiday bazaar to go. See you there.

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Sunrise

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Here are some photos taken of this afternoon's sunrise. I took them From my truck while I was running errands around town. They were taken between 1:04pm and 1:10pm.


A lineman on the pole.




Looking over towards Cemetery Hill.












Maniilaq Health Center.




This was the view to the right of the sunrise.





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