a marshmallow world in the city....

maddie and tanya came over so maddie could help decorate the tree. always more fun with a kid around. i think she was doing those kid/camera smiles. i think she had fun. she gets a bit bored and then plays with the cats or the kitty manger scene. my sister sent it to me a few years back. i always laugh thinking of the chinese folks making our god, jesus, as a kitty cat. they must think americans are a strange bunch of folk. can't imagine them making buddha in the likeness of a cat, but different folks i guess. maddie loves the kitty manger set. my christmas tree is decorated with almost all animal ornaments. the non-critter ones were gifts. i suggested to maddie that she could start collecting cat ornaments and one day have an all kitty decorated tree. she just loves cats!! i'll put a better picture of the decorated tree in later.

these are just scenes from my walk in the bog today with the girls. rio was quite giddy. she loves that fresh snow. it was qutie lovely out. think i got some nice pictures. will have to get some pictures done up at costco tomorrow. it's been awhile. apparently nobody does this anymore and albums will be just another thing of the past. as you get older all that seemed normal to you gets replace by newer more cool stuff. i still love a newspaper and i still love turning pages in a photo album. silly me.

the temperatures dropped down today to near 0. even blossom lifted her feet up from time to time. i should have put rio's booties on, she would have enjoyed the walk even more. blossom got to play with indy and boddhi in the yard while we decorated this evening so she is pretty wiped out. that is dog for happy!!

tried to get some pictures to show how deep the snow is. this is my back deck. the trashcan isn't really trash it's my kindling for fires. just was easiest place to keep it dry and convenient. you can sort see how deep the snow was though.

just put in my kenny g christmas cd. always so pretty and relaxing. i do enjoy christmas music and we listened to it at work these past few days. work wasn't bad at all this week. wednesday i just had one baby, who had accidently taken a relatives meds. 2 year olds are great at getting into things. she did just fine. next night i had 2 kids. i had the snowmachine accident kid from the other night that i had. she's doing good as well. sore. so far no complications though so that is great. lucky kid. the other kid had a respiratory issue, but was also found to have a social issue. not sure what happened to the kid and it's doubtful anyone will ever know. the stories in these case just don't make sense and often change. so hard to keep track of lies. still better to just tell the truth.

we get alot of abuse cases in...just part of working with kids sadly. i've never figured out how someone could go through the pregnancy/delivery process and then harm the baby they've created or protect those who do, but life doesn't always make sense i guess. truth is, being a parent can be incredibly stressful and many people just aren't up to the task. kid should be okay from this event and hopefully, he'll get put someplace more safe. facts are that most of these kids end up back in the same situation. parents who get kids taken away just get preggers and have another kid. parents rights seem to always win over the childs rights. go figure.

enough of that cheery talk though, it's christmas time and kenny g is playing.

the fog finally cleared and the snow started to fall. i have done a great deal of shoveling of snow this week. it just kept falling and falling. we got upwards of 20 inches in the anchorage area depending on where you live. the hillside and east get the bulk of it. (i live on the east). on tuesday i woke and took the girls to the bog to play in the snow. then a friend from work had called about taking a walk. i have a spare pair of snowshoes and she'd never been so we met up. i love getting out there in all that fresh powder with the snowshoes. it's so beautiful!! jana had a bit of a tough time but i think she had a great time overall. blossom was happy to be out there and dove over and over again for the frisbee. above blossom makes her trail in the snow of n. bivouac.

as usual my pictures are out of order. above and below are from the next day. i had a headache, but was able to get out later in the afternoon to basher trailhead for some spectacular views. more snow fell wednesday. we got nothing on valdez though. they get the most snow in the state from what i can gather and they collected nearly 6 feet to our 20 inches. i guess in thompson pass some 6-8 feet fell in an 8 hour period. some crazy thing. they closed the road for a bit, but they are pretty good at getting the snow plowed in those parts...probably related to the pipeline and all.

i love when all the world looks like it's marshmallow covered. crazy pretty really.

tuesday was a busy day for me. from the walk, then snowshoe i headed out to the alaska mill and feed to pick out a christmas tree. i remember years ago when i got my first tree being so indecisive...looking for that perfect tree. now i'm all...yep, that'll do just fine. i had to put it in the stand and get some water on it quickly. at the shop they do a fresh cut and pack the tree in a plastic bag. you need to get it inside as soon as possible. needle loss is a premium in our state. tree's don't last through the season really, but i still love the smell of the fresh pine through the house.

i made a tossed oreo salad and headed to a work party. have been attempting to post pictures of facebook but it craps out each time i attempt. i think my computer may need a tune up to clean out the crap.

there has been an issue apparently with the tree's shipped to alaska this year. i guess a bunch of frogs hobo'd it on up with the christmas trees. mine doesn't appear to have any frogs in it, but i imagine some people jumped like hell setting up thier trees and having a frog jump out at them. the fish and game are asking people to kill the frogs are take them to fish and game. fear is they will bring disease to our one frog species up here. right now our frogs are frozen solid under all the snow and ice. they burrow in the mud in the fall and freeze. they re-animate in the spring. crazy, eh?

below is anchorage without the fog. a nice site to see.

jana only fell a few times on our outing. i had to remove the snowshoes with this one as it was a doozey. she fell backwards and slid down a little slope. not easy to get up from that position. we were almost back to the parking lot so i had her just finish with a walk. actually much easier to snowshoe than walk with this much snow. she is smiling so i must not have killed her out there. we only went 2+ miles.

jana brought along her corgi "duffy". i think he had a wonderful time. dogs tend to step on the back of your snowshoes ...here he is looking for belly rubs from me. cute pup i think. very sweet.

i take many pictures looking up into the tree's. they are just so pretty. did get some reading done this week. just finished a new book, "dream when you're feeling blue" by elizabeth berg. she writes a nice read and i have read many of her novels. nothing too deep but always enjoyable books to escape into...not that i have anything to escape from. life is pretty sweet. it was about sisters and thier family during wwII. writing to thier men, sacrificing for the war. just a different time period.

just another neighborhood shot. a guy down the road makes these mini-cache's. i always think they look cute. in the old days much larger ones were built for food storage. off the ground from vermin and bears and outside for the cooler effect.

just a parting shot of duffy on the trails of n. bivouac.

my body is aching a bit between snowshoeing and shoveling. i should get to bed. i've got walk/ski plans for tomorrow and sled/ski plans for sunday. i love snow!!