No Longer a Winter Wonderland!

We had a wonderful Christmas break consisting of family, lots of snow, and fun. We were fortunate to have several family members come up for the holidays before our sister Michelle and her family, Chris (husband), Zach, Ethan, and Graham (3 sons), moved away to Saudi Arabia.

Megan and Ethan at the bounce house. Isn't he so handsome!


Reggie, Ryanne, and their 2 kids stayed with us in our home. It was so nice to have enough space that we could have another family here with us comfortably. We really enjoyed the time we got to spend with them. The festivities included lots of eating, playing Wii, tromping through the snow, and more eating.

Uncle Scott with baby Graham Jenkins at the Italian Christmas Eve feast!


Working on our gingerbread houses. Each child got there own and it was perfect.

Making sugar cookies for Santa.


Sugar cookies and a letter explaining that everyone would be at Uncle Mark and Aunt Lauren's house for Christmas so Santa should leave everyones presents here.


Look at all the presents. Santa must have read the letter! Senneca and Connor excited to open their presents. We sure miss having these two stay with us!

Christmas morning was held at our house and it was a blast. The breakfast was delicious and I have never seen so many presents under one tree! It was snowing outside and we all got wonderful gifts. Mark got me an awesome green down jacket which has come in extremely handy (keep reading for more info). We invited Bill and Linda (my wonderful in-laws) over for Christmas dinner after having our own small Christmas at their house in the afternoon.

This is a quilt my mom and I made for my dad. It is all his t-shirts from marathons and 5k's he used to run, made into one big quilt. He loved it!Ethan and Zach posing after opening their stockings. We sure miss these guys!

The week that followed Christmas got really interesting. The temperatures plummeted and cars stopped working. The temperature for about 2 weeks hovered anywhere from 15-30 BELOW zero. This is where I and the down jacket became inseparable. I even wore it in the house because our poor little base board heating could not compete against the -20 degree weather outside. It was cold but life went on pretty much like usual. When I went back to school the kids were not allowed to go out to recess if it is -12. They went out 2 times during the week at -8 and stayed in the other days. I think that everyone might have been praying extremely hard for things to warm up because THAT IS WHAT IT DID!!!

Monday it warmed up into the +15-20's and everyone was thrilled. Tuesday we had a beautiful snowfall hovering at about 29 degrees and then it happened. Tuesday night the temperatures rose about 32 degrees and it started to RAIN. The roads iced over, nice for ice skates but bad for cars. Before 8 in the morning there had already been over 40 accidents. School was cancelled. It later got to 45 degrees out. That is nearly a 75 degree swing in temperature in less than a week. In Alaska we call that a heat wave! Now it is Friday and I have not been back to school all week to teach. The snow is melting and leaving treacherous ice in its place. Side roads are literally skating rinks and the Municipality is working around the clock on the roads. And so, here I sit for the 3rd day in a row at home. Who would have thought we needed it to warm up to 40 degrees to get a snow day! No school on Monday because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and I only wish I knew ahead of time that I would have a 6 day weekend and maybe I could have accomplished something more!

Back porch pre-thaw!

This is our back porch now :( Now we will have to go through spring break up 2 times.

Happy 5th Birthday Zach (January 19th) we love you and miss you!