Celebrating Santa Lucia

This year, I was invited to celebrate the Scandinavian holiday of Santa Lucia for the first time. Lydia and Colleen and I decided to surprise our Norwegian friend Sandra on the holiday. Traditionally, the celebration involves the eldest daughter dressing as Lucia in a white gown, red sash, and a crown of candles, bearing a tray of lussekatt (sweet rolls), and leading a procession of women to awaken the mother, singing the traditional Santa Lucia song.

Since we were aware that Sandra is an early riser, we wanted to get to her house by 6am to make sure she'd still be asleep. So we gathered at Lydia's at 5am on what turned out to be the coldest day of the winter thus far, at 0°F. We dressed in white gowns and red sashes, and Colleen adorned me with a crown of candles (actually lights) and spruce boughs.

We parked a few blocks away from Sandra's home and walked on the greenbelt trail to her house, in the darkness of 3 hours before dawn, lit by my candles. (We passed no one, unfortunately, which would have been amusing.) In the street outside her home, we quietly assembled the tray of coffee, sugar, cream, sweet rolls, butter, fruit, and candles, and hoped the front door would be unlocked. Alas, it was not. We were about to knock when suddenly the door opened! Sandra's husband John beamed when he realized what we were doing and ushered us in, whispering, "Hurry, she's still asleep!"

We walked in to her bedroom and begun singing the song (which none of us actually knew how to sing, but we had the lyrics.) Sandra lay sleeping face up and continued to sleep through the beginning of the song...then opened her eyes and saw us, three figures with candles in a dark room singing. Her face lit up and she put her hands on her cheeks, delighted, and declared this the best day of her entire life! She'd never been "Santa Lucia'd" before and she was amazed that we went to such lengths, right down to the beautifully spiraled rolls that Colleen had made the night before.

The four of us sat on her bed and ate our breakfast, enjoying the morning and celebrating until the sun came up 3 hours later. It was a wonderful, festive day and a great start to the holiday season!

Afterward as we walked back to the car, Lydia took this picture of me and Colleen—you can see our breath!

Turning Point

With great sadness, I report that my dear friends Tori and Ryan have moved away from Alaska, seeking new adventures in Alexandria, Egypt... We spent most of our free time over the past 7 months together, and I will miss them immensely. I wish them all the best and know we'll meet again somewhere in the world.

Group shot of the crew: Paul, me, Ryan, Tori, and Cillian

Another picture of all of us, with the kids at T&R's Bytchin' Egyptian farewell party:

Before they left, Paul and Cillian and I were discussing how much we're going to miss Tori and Ryan, and one of us joked that we're going to need to recruit for replacements because our group will fall apart without them. This turned into the idea to write a fake personals ad to recruit replacements, in which we'd describe Tori and Ryan's beloved attributes, interpersonal "skills", etc., intended as desired "qualifications" for new candidates. We read them the ad at their going away party for laughs, but also to share the things we love about them and what we'll miss! Of course, this was all very innocent until Cillian argued that we have to actually post the ad, otherwise what's the point?! Since then, we've gotten some unusual responses, including messages from a few couples relocating to Anchorage and looking for friends on craigslist and 1 nomination for the "best of craigslist." It's been an interesting social experiment so far, to say the least...

I guess we just miss our friends. Bon voyage!

Sheep Mountain Ski Weekend

I just got back from a mini-retreat ski weekend at Sheep Mountain, about 2.5 hours north/northeast of Anchorage. The owner of the lodge has this annual event with a bunch of her girl friends, whom Stephanie knows, and I got to tag along! We had a blast and it was well worth the somewhat scary road conditions through the mountains to get there.

I went cross-country skiing for the second time in my life (nearly 15 years after the first time) and managed to stay upright almost the whole time. It was a perfect ski day—bright sun, fresh snow, no wind. We also had an amazing view of Matanuska Glacier from the trail, especially as the sun started to sink below the mountains in late afternoon.

It was also a nice surprise to share the trail with a dogsled team who were training for the season and passed me several times back and forth!

After skiing, we cooked up a ton of amazing food in the lodge restaurant kitchen (which is closed for the season) and then walked it off under the bright full moon. It felt about zero degrees that evening, which we estimated since the insides of our nostrils were freezing. But after a time in the sauna and hot tub, we had to get back outside to cool off in the snow.

Who wants to come next year?

More Terrible Pictures of Moose

Well, that was fast! Sure enough, last night I found the three moose sleeping in our front yard. I can't believe they chose our lawn as their bed for the winter! I want to welcome them, as I'm used to leaving bird seed or pieces of stale bread for the neighborhood critters...but it's a different story in New England where you're just dealing with squirrels and ducks. So, I will leave the moose alone.

But of course I did take a few pictures... They didn't turn out very well without a flash, but I'll post them anyway as proof. See the dark spot (with ears) in front of the trees?
And here's a close up of the mama in front of her 2 calves:
I hope I didn't disturb them too much and they'll return...

Watch Your Step

Now that sunrise is at 9am, I'll need to make sure to turn on the porch light before I leave for work so I don't step on a moose. That's right—Stephanie just told me she saw 3 moose curled up in our front yard one morning a couple weeks ago! And the large depressions in the snow are still visible, indicating this may be a regular thing... I'll let you know when I see them!

Spoiled Rotten

Why settle for just a birthday? This year, I decided to celebrate a full birthweek. It started at Sunny's dinner party the weekend before my birthday, when my friends presented me with a tiara and a surprise cherry cobbler with way too many candles. The tiara brought back memories from childhood birthday crowns at Burger King! (Boy, have I come a long way since then.) Good thing I have learned to share—everyone wanted a turn with the tiara:A couple days later, my friends took me out to dinner before I left for New Mexico. Another Happy Birthday song, another dessert, and another candle—wow, I am spoiled.

Finally, I had a wonderful time spending last weekend and my actual birthday day in New Mexico with Aimee. We did a yoga workshop, visited several hot springs, shared many delicious meals, and enjoyed the warm sun and desert... I will post a photo album of all our pictures soon, but here's a preview:

Sunset near Taos upon arrival: View from our front door the first morning:Another view from our house that morning—hot air balloons in the Taos Mountain Balloon Rally: Aimee and I on October 27, best day of the year:And here's one of many promising signs of the strong blue streak in this swing state!

After an amazing weekend, I returned home to Anchorage (at a chilly 12 degrees, I might add) and found birthday greetings flooding my mailbox, emailbox, and even my doorstep. Wow! And to think I sometimes feel out of sight, out of mind all the way up here in Alaska... Thank you all so much—I'm so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life. My birthweek truly could not have been any better.

New Neighbor

So I'm home sick on the couch watching TV, and out of the corner of my eye, I notice a big shadow pass by the front windows, and my first thought is, "Geez, what are my sketchy neighbors up to this time?" (More stories about them later.) But then the shadow passes the window with the open blinds and I see it's a huge moose! I leaped up so fast (amazed that I have speed in me today—I was a little worried I might throw up, but so far so good), grabbed my camera and ran outside all in about 3 seconds—but the moose had vanished.

I thought I may have hallucinated and felt pretty foolish as I realized my neighbors might have seen me running around in the snow in my socks for no apparent reason. I cautiously looked around the side of the house hoping to find evidence of my sanity, and sure enough the moose was clomping around on his way back to the creek in our backyard! He paused and looked at me, yawned (not really, but he did look bored), and then turned back around and walked through the creek and up the other bank!

These pictures aren't so great, but that's how it goes...it all happened so fast and my camera just couldn't keep up.

Here he is looking at me, quite bored:

And I swear there's a moose in this picture...though it may be the worst wildlife picture ever. (I'm just sharing it to help tell part of the story—the part about me being so excited there's a moose walking through the creek in my backyard that I'm thrilled to be taking these terrible pictures.)
Actually, this one is probably the worst. (Or, perhaps the best picture of a moose's rear end?)

Anyway, that just made my day. Wild animals wandering through my yard—definitely one of my favorite things about living in Anchorage!

Red State Rebel?

Well, what do you know! Within hours of starting this blog, I got pegged by the authors of Red State Rebels as "The anti-Sarah Palin," with a link to my blog. Gosh darn it, what an honor!

But if they only knew...

Check out this picture from early October at the Obama Rally in downtown Anchorage. Our posters are in response to the "Go Sarah, Go!" bumper stickers plastered all over Alaska. (I may pick up a few of these stickers to use for myself after Palin loses the election!)

Also, I got my first pledged vote over Palin last month, and since then the votes have been pouring in. My qualifications include more foreign relations experience than Palin, since I've seen Russia from Alaska myself several times AND have actually traveled to countries outside the US (beyond Canada and Mexico). Thanks for all the support, everyone! I won't let you down.

First Snow

Already? I’m used to early October being autumn, not winter...

Last Sunday afternoon, I was at a friend’s house on the outskirts of Anchorage, where it started snowing pretty hard all of a sudden—the first time I’d seen snow this season. I told myself that since we were all the way in the foothills of the Chugach mountains, it’d definitely be at least a few more days before snow hits the rest of Anchorage, where I live. But back in town later that day, it began snowing...and it snowed all night and into the next morning. Winter is officially here.

All this worrying lately about how to prepare for the big scary Alaska winter—might I need super boots, gaiters, electric blankets, full spectrum light bulbs, studded tires, insulating curtains? (Yes, apparently, even our windows need special winter gear!) But now that winter has begun, there's nothing really to worry about. Just put on that extra layer in the morning before I walk up the hill to work. Easy.

Then again...ask me how I feel about winter in about 2 months, when the sun will come up around 11am and sink back down around 3pm. But I won't think about that now. Now, it's snowing hard again, a quiet, pleasant, drifting snowfall, and I'm going out for a walk (time to get some gaiters). I didn't realize how much I missed the snow after all those years in Portland...