Christmas day cont.!!!

Managed to finally get out of bed. We opened presents, went to church, spent the whole day putting together steam engines, hair pins, and eating too much chocolate :) we finished off with a wonderful christmas dinner complete with Christmas Crackers. Such a good day!

The next day we met up with a few friends to play showshoe baseball. It didn't exactly work out how we had planned especially with 45 mph winds so we played showshoe olympics with facefirst snow angels, races, spinning games, and more! So much fun!

Since then we have been havin some game nights with friends, playing in the snow, and getting Andy on skis for the first time! He did so well and only fell twice! He's definitely getting the hang of it and has a new favorite winter activity. Just wait until we get him on a dog sled!!! We're going skiing again tonight and tomorrow morning :)
Tomorrow afternoon Juaquine and Mandi (brother and sister-in-law) are going to arrive from Fairbanks for the weekend. That means another Christmas! It will be good to see them since I haven't seen them since our Alaska Wedding. I cannot wait to see them again. We're planning a double date and some fun times hanging out drinking tea. Isaiah and Lily are quite excited aswel :) Only 16 hours!

Christmas!!!

It is finally here! I'm laying in bed begging the clock to say it's 8am! My little brother set the time for everybody to get up and for some crazy reason he picked 8!!! What sort of a kid is he!? SO here I am bored out of my mind, nothing is new on facebook, pintrest has even lost my interest, I just want the next 30 minutes to be gone so Christmas can really start!!!

Yesterday was tons of fun. We went and played outside in the snow for a few hours sledding, making snowmen, building forts, having snowball fights, and throwing my little brother down hills :P Spent the afternoon lazing around watching A Town Called Panic. It was really funny! then the rush ensued about 3:45 when we realized we needed to make a 4th trip to the store, had to get everybody dressed for church at 5 practice our songs we were performing, make dinner, clean the house, and look pretty all in 1.25 hours! It was a bit crazy to say the least. The christmas eve service at my church was fun. So many cute kids performing christmas songs, a poem, the Christmas story from Luke, and lots of visiting with friends. We came home to our "traditional" Israeli Christmas-eve dinner. with olives, cheese, meat, avocado, different types of salad, and much much more. We sat on the floor and had loads of fun.

After opening up our one christmas-eve present, drinking some mulled wine, and skyping Andy's family we crashed into bed about midnight :)

The beginning of our Alaskan Adventure!!!

Traveling in Alaska is never boring...NEVER! We got to Glenallen about 4pm very excited about getting home in time for dinner. We start leaving town and see a sign saying Thompson pass is closed. This happens every now and then when avalanches are prevalent or if there has already been one down and they are clearing it out. So this was one of those instances :( We went out for dinner at the Caribou, a restaurant in Glenallen...the only restaurant in Glenallen :) We met up with a few friends there who were in the same situation as we were. After a few hours we heard the pass was opened and we were able to drive all the way to Valdez!

We got to Valdez and Andy was surprised at how much snow there actually is here...that is putting it lightly. He was more astounded :D There was about 5 or 6 feet of snow on the ground and the last few days it has been snowing constantly!

We have made the most out of the snow and all put on snowshoes to collected our Christmas tree :) It has just been snowing and snowing and snowing. I have grown up in this little crazy town and still am amazed with the amount of snow we get every year! Andy learned what a

snowblower was and has throughly enjoyed it :)
Our house finally looks all Christmas-ified with the tree in it. We decorated a gingerbread house today, went christmas caroling, and played in the snow for a few hours. I'm feeling the Christmas feeling :)

Alaska Day 1

We are currently driving through the mountains of Alaska! We just had to stop and wait for a moose to cross the highway!!! It feels like I'm driving through a winter wonderland almost too good to be true. The snow is all stuck onto the branches of the trees, the mountains are completely white, the lakes are all frozen and covered in snow machine tracks and moose tracks.

The trip to Alaska was far too long and much too eventful. We went to bed at 11pm and woke up at 1:30am to start driving to Edinburg. I slept for an hour on the flight from Edinburg to Paris and when we arrived we found out that all the security personnel went on strike. They would stand outside the barriers to security with megaphones and signs yelling and changing...slight unnerving :s So we went upstairs to find out that we had to go through security to board our next flight...the line was about a mile long and had thousands of people standing in it...and our flight took off in an hours time. So I found a guy named Ollie and a woman named Elaine (see picture)

who were both on the same flight to Salt Lake City. We stood in line and would take turns finding French workers who were not too pleased to have people asking them questions. We finally figured out that all the planes were delayed and at the last second the workers would yell out a destination and you would shove your way through the masses, get to the front of security, then have to run to your gate and barley get to your plane. None of the connecting flights were still valid. Everybody's schedules were totally thrown down the drain. So...talk about stress. I kept with Ollie and Elaine and we were able to figure out the system and get on our plane ok. The 11.5 hour flight turned into a 13.5 hour flight. So that was no fun but we eventually made it to Salt Lake city where my 7 hour layover had changed to 5.5 hours. I took advantage of the free internet, starbucks, and restaurants. It was an ok layover. I slept the next 5 hour flight to Anchorage where my dad and Andy met me. The weather was too bad in Valdez for planes to fly out so my dad drove to Anchorage to pick up Andy and I from the airport. Andy arrived at the airport several hours before me and was quite surprised to see my dad waving at him in the airport :)

So we spent the morning doin some errands around Anchorage including a huge shop at Sams Club and Fred Meyer (oh how I have missed you!). We are currently driving to Valdez. I'm slightly bummed that we're missing a day with my brother, sister, and mom.

But visiting with my dad has been amazing and Andy is able to see one of the prettiest places in the world all snow covered! It is such a different place in the winter :) I am so ecstatic to be back at home especially in the winter. There is so many things we have planned in order to give Andy a tride and true wintery experience <3

Dundee day 5-6

Shepherds, angels, innkeeper, mary, joseph, and some wise guys :P The nativity at CBC was absolutely hilarious. The kids all mimed a recorded play so the kids were free to focus on their acting. If you could look past the shepherd who kept putting his crook around his neck, the angel with her wand up her nose, and the wise men who almost fell off the stage it was a very well done play. Complete with a dance party in the stable :) We got home and were having a nice relaxed sunday-lunch when Linda asked us if we had our passports...such an obvious question that she almost didn't mention it...we didn't. We had been so busy getting ready to go to Dundee that we totally forgot that we were going from Dundee to Alaska...meaning the UK to the USA...you need passports to do that apparently :P So Andy was a gent and spent his afternoon on a train going back to Glasgow just to get our passports. What a good guy.

While he was away I went to a frozen lake with Mike, Linda, and Tom. The almost-visa-fiasco was just about too exciting for us. Just thinking about what would have happened if we hadn't remembered before going to the airport :s So that made Monday much more relaxed when we realized there was nothing else vital that we hadn't forgotten :) Monday was spent packing and just general hanging out. It was pouring down rain so it made it feel better staying inside with the first day not having sun. Off to Alaska on Tuesday morning!!!

Dundee day 4

Mike had his car being worked on in a place called Dunkheld. So Tom, Sam, Mike, Linda, Andy and I all piled in a car and made the car ride to a touristy village that looks exactly like the town out of Hot Fuzz!!!

It was so funny walking around the place. The whole place is filled with knitting shops, flower shops, some antique shops, and a few quite posh clothing shops. There was also a cathedral that was quite cool.

We walked into the cathedral and there was an organ player practicing for Christmas eve :) It was so beautiful with the river running next to the green grass covered in frost.

We all went to a coffee shop for a cinnamon latte and some chocolate icecream. Had a nap on the drive back, had some dinner, and then read a bit followed by a few scrubs episodes! It was a lovely Saturday with great weather and lots of fun. Only 3 days until we fly to Alaska!!!!!

Dundee day 3

Today was great fun. It was so sunny outside, beautiful weather! We slept in quite a while, cleaned up a bit to get ready for the Watercress Line playing later that night at the Hayes's house. Andy, Mike, Linda, Sam, and I went for a

walk at a place called Combrie. It is a lake with a playground next to it and lots of trees. The lake was almost totally frozen. We talked a bit about tossing Sam onto it to see how thick the ice actually was :P

So we got some coffee in us and went back to the house, cleaned up, got food on the table, and started welcoming people over. There were probably about 50 people in the Hayes's downstairs!

We put logs out on the porch and lit them on fire so the kids jumping on the frosty trampoline would have some light.

It was such a good time with the food, banter, and music. I got tired and went to bed about 11pm but I heard the fun didn't stop until about 2am! So good time, it's the weekend and tomorrow is looking like a very relaxed day with really great weather once again :)

Dundee day 2

Today was loads of fun! Since Andy was studying and Mike (Andy's dad) only worked a morning shift he took me over to St. Andrews to take Sam for a walk along the beach. The weather was beautiful with a pretty sunset and slightly chilly.

We went into St. Andrews city center and had a walk around the shops looking at all sorts of girlie things. I think Mike is enjoying having a daughter eh gets to spend some time with (after raising three rowdy boys:P) We ended with a coffee and icecream in an Italian shop. It was so much fun just hanging out. Imiss my dad so much and it just so happens that my dad and Mike are all too similar that when they meet it is going to be a major "dad fest". So it was so much fun to hang out with my '2nd dad' for an afternoon :)

That was about it. We went home, I made some homemade marshmallows in preparation for a gig night friday at the Hayes's house. Thought I would add a treat to the incredible spread that Linda (Andy's mom) had already made. Had some tea then watched some scrubs as a family. Good day!

Dundee day 1

Got to go on a walk with Linda and Sam (the dog) along a frozen lake. It was quite muddy so the bright orange wellies helped with the calf deep mud holes :P We opened some Christmas gifts and had a lovely night sitting around drinking tea. It was a really relaxed day. Definitely a good start to Christmas vacation!