Ho, Ho, Ho!

I'll apologize in advance for the obnoxiously large amount of photos going into the blog this month.

Las Vegas

In mid-November we took a parents only trip to Las Vegas.  Yuri had never been and it’s a place that you need to see once in your life so we went.  In hindsight, it’s not really his kind of place.  Having said this, it was still a nice trip with lots of relaxing, eating and a few good shows.  We left Vegas with only one picture...Yuri documenting one of his miniature lobster tacos.

Thanksgiving/Rory's Birthday

Rory’s actual birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year.  She is officially five and is thrilled about the prospect of turning 6 in 2014.  Rory hit some major milestones in the last year – learned to read, count to 100 (with a few hiccups),  sew (by hand), and ride a snow machine - just to list a things.

Here is the birthday girl with her gift from Grandma Karen and Grandpa Sid, a purse filled with all kinds of fun stuff.  It was a hit!

Thanksgiving dinner doubled as Rory's birthday celebration.  Here she is with Grandma Linda posing in front of her princess birthday cake.

The goofballs enjoying their cake.

The girls stayed with Grandma Judy and Grandad Andy while Yuri and I were in Vegas.  This little piece of art came home with Rory - it seems that she didn't mind us leaving one bit.

The Eagle River Cousins were in town during the Thanksgiving weekend.  Rory and Massie thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Addy and Quinn.  Missing from the picture is Tyson...the odd boy out.

The Friday after Thanksgiving we headed out to Harding to spend time with my folks.  Here is Yuri with the girls during our Christmas tree scouting trip.  We did find a beauty...more pictures later.

The girls asleep at the lake; these kids thrash like fish on a line.  Unfortunately I was their bunk mate.

Rory's Dance Recital

Rory has been taking dance class for the last 6 months and early December brought the "end of class" recital.  Her group danced to “It’s a Hard Knock Life” from Annie.  She was adorable and remembered most of the choreography.  

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Linda posing with the little star.  She really got into character with her soot covered face.

...and with Grandad Andy.

Rory with a few of her friends.

And a throwback picture so that you all can see where Rory got her moves.  That's me second from the left (right next to Ricky Allen).

December Fun

December brought a lot of fun parties and events.  Massie missed out on many of the festivities of the season as she had the crud…she was still in good spirits but I couldn’t, in good faith, bring her to parties with 103.5 degree temps.  

Our beautiful, Harding Lake - Charlie Brown tree.

Party at the Binkley's
We attended a Christmas cocktail party at Sabrina and Ryan Binkley's beautiful home.  The best dressed people were found there that night!  Here are the boys.

...and the girls.

Kissing under the mistletoe.

Early Christmas with the Franks

Yuri’s Aunt, Georgianne, and Uncle, Randy, had us over for an early Christmas celebration.  We had great food and an opportunity to catch up with the Frank side of the family.  Below is a very grainy picture of Massie, Dorothy, Rory and family friend, Jesse (along with Bruce who is hiding in the back).

Santa Visits the Lambert Home
Heather Lambert had her annual Santa party and the Morgan clan was thrilled to attend.  The big guy made a showing and Rory was excited, although she was so flustered that she forgot what she wanted to ask for.  Massie wouldn't go anywhere near him!

Another Early Christmas

We celebrated an early Christmas with Yuri’s Fairbanks folks, Linda and Steve, this year.  The girls got spoiled as did their parents.  The entire Braden crew was able to join us as well which added to the festivities.

Bruce, Rory and Massie handing out gifts.

The Braden kids - Dorothy, Jacob and Bruce.

And, of course, the kids loved playing in the boxes.

A WWWW National Lampoons Christmas

The theme of our Wild Women who Wine in Westgate Christmas party was “National Lampoons Christmas” and we were not left disappointed.  Significant others, as well as a few special guests, were invited, adding to excitement and fun.  Our cups were running over with love, joy, food, booze and most importantly, good friends!

If you haven't seen the movie I can't help you understand the pictures below...enjoy!

Christmas at HooDoo

We had a little neighborhood get-together at the local brewery, Hoodoo.  Pizza and beer were served and the afternoon provided a chance to meet new people and talk to fellow Taku neighborhood residents that we don’t get to see too often.  Here are neighbors Rory and Shaye hanging out at the pub.

The Kids Take Over the Dodson House

Heather and Jimmy held a fun little get-together for their friends and family.  There were a lot of kids there (as you can see from the picture) – it was nice to catch up with many my childhood friends that I don’t see frequently enough.  Below are three Roberts/Harter kiddos, two Crowder cuties, two Burks kids,  one Parrish newborn, one Dodson cutie pie, and Rory.

Heather had a cookie station set-up for the kids.  See the adorable baby in the background?  That's not a doll, that is a Roberts/Harter baby.

Karen and Lance Parrish invited us up to their place to mingle with close family friends and to view their Christmas village.  They must have seventy-five village houses set-up…an amazing site.  I’ll get a picture next year.  Oh, and they also appeared to have nearly the same number of nut crackers.

Here We Come A Caroling...
Global warming has brought above normal temperatures to Fairbanks (we love global warming).  It's usually much too cold to be outdoors this time of year but since this wasn't the case, a group of us neighbors decided to go caroling.  We had a great time bringing joy and bad singing to the neighborhood and only two moose were encountered!

Rory with her two superstar babysitters, Jenna and Holly, and her BFF, Shaye.

Santa Visits the Home Turf

Santa made a special visit to our house and this time, Rory didn’t forget what she wanted to ask for – a toy pony and a nutcracker.  Yes folks, that was her wish list!  Massie didn’t want to get near the big guy but her wish list included “pink and purple toys”.  No more explanation than that.

Rory and I went to the Nutcracker a few weeks before Christmas.  I think this visit was the reason for her odd gift request from Santa.

A Very Warwick Christmas

We continued the tradition of Christmas Eve at the Warwick house after a visit to the Birch Hill Cemetery to tell Zach how much we miss him.  As usual, my Aunt, Cheryl, Uncle, Randy, and cousins Jeremy and Philip joined us for some food, drinks and gifts.  In addition, my aunt, Trish, cousin, Wendy and her husband, Dennis, were visiting so the evening was even more special.  

I caught Rory and my aunt Trish mesmerized in front of the TV watching the Nutcracker.  In her prime, Trish was a Prima Ballerina.  She and Rory enjoyed their time together and shared love of dance.

Not the most flattering picture but nonetheless - Uncle Randy, Aunt Cheryl and my Cousin Jeremy.

This year brought our 2nd annual Pool and Ping Pong tournament.  The winners get their names on the Christmas Tournament plaque and bragging rights for the year.  These two sharks swept the games - cousin Wendy in Ping Pong and her husband Dennis in Pool.  Next year is my year, I can feel it.

Most of the Christmas gang (minus Yuri, taking the picture, and Jesse, off with Carrie).  You'll notice that Rory and Massie got into the pool chalk (see their smurf noses).

Aunt Trish wanted a picture with the dogs...one didn't make the shot so there are ONLY six.

The Morgans Do Christmas
We host Christmas morning brunch at our home.  It was a nice relaxing morning.

Opening stockings amidst the Christmas morning carnage.

Opening presents...

Massie got a golf club and golf ball swingy thingy.

The girls received a lot of baking/cooking stuff from Santa.

Trying out some of the new utensils and hats.

Random December Shots
A successful visit to the dentist.

The girls with fun Christmas crazy straws.

Rory finally giving up on the possibility of mom and dad heading home from yet another party any time soon.

Girls loving on each other.

Mom and Massie selfie.

Grandma Judy and Rory selfie.

Rory has been using the computer a lot lately.  I can help with the translation - "Dear Mom I Love you.  Mom wants to keep it" (I told Rory that I wanted to keep the message).  Awwwwwww......

Playing in the winter wonderland...

Gourmet Alaskan meal...

Yuri injured his back/shoulder/neck several months ago and put this little contraption together to place himself in traction.  Here is Rory mimicking her dad's move.

'Till Next Year
It's now time to remove our tree from the house but the darned thing is thriving (see the new growth in the picture below) and to be honest I'm feeling really guilty throwing this guy out into the cold.

Pumpkins & Ballerinas

I've been terrible about getting this blog updated so let's just get to it!

All Dressed Up

Yuri accompanied me to HIPOW this year and, in addition to being my date, he helped me stay within my budget.  HIPOW is a private school fundraiser that is always a lot of fun and a chance to dress up.  Following is a picture of the two of us - in hindsight perhaps he should have sat on the other side of me so that he didn't have ostrich feathers and lace blocking his vision!

Halloween

The weeks leading to Halloween were filled with fun and parties.  We attended three Halloween parties and all involved carving pumpkins - needless to say, we purchased an entire pumpkin patch. 

Yuri is the best at taking the guts out of the pumpkins and we gals are happy to let him do this work.

Cute kiddos posing after carving.

We typically experience negative temperatures and have plenty of snow on the ground in October, however that wasn't the case in Fairbanks this year.  For the first time I can remember we were able to visit a pumpkin patch in our home town.  Now, it was really more of a field with store-bought pumpkins strewn about but they had hay rides, animals to pet and hot cocoa, so it was still pretty neat.  The girls and I met up with Heather, baby Harper and Harper's grandma, Robyn.  The picture below is terrible but I had to document the fun time we had.

Rory and I made jack-o-lantern faces on the mandarin orange cups for her snack day at school...super cute.

After parties and fun Halloween activities the big day finally arrived.  Rory was very clear about wanting to be a fairy and never waivered.  Massie didn't really care so she got to wear the ladybug costume that I ordered from Etsy for Rory last year that didn't get worn.  They were both cute little bugs. 

Halloween in Fairbanks is usually pretty cold, but this year was different.  Instead of cracking the door open to keep the cold out when handing out candy, I had Yuri build me a bonfire in our driveway where we enjoyed the evening handing out candy outdoors.  We had at least 400 kids stop by for candy (our neighbor said she got almost 800 visitors) so it was great fun to watch all the kids running up and down the street.

Massie and Grandma Linda enjoying the fire.

Golf
Yuri went on his annual golf trip with his Anchorage/Juneau friends.  This year, they went to Dallas and played quite a bit of golf.  Bad picture, but again, I want to document these fun experiences.

Cabin Time

With the warm weather, we decided to bring the girls and some family friends out to the Harding Lake cabin. 

As indicated by the note below, Rory enjoys her time at the lake.  If you can't figure out her writing...I'll decipher: I'm happy (hape) because (Bcus) I'm going (goen) to the the cabin (caben).  I'm so impressed with her ability to write and read at the age of 4 - I'm certain I didn't exhibit any of these abilities at that age.  Proud mom.

Ella took this great picture of Massie at the cabin.

The girls and I beach combing on a sunny and brisk day.

Rory's 5th Birthday Party

Although Rory doesn't turn five until November 28th, we had her birthday party at the beginning of November as our schedules were booked the rest of the month.  She wanted a ballerina birthday party so that's just what she got.

Here is Bruce with two pretty ballerinas.

We had a real ballerina spend some time with the partygoers at the ballet studio - here are the kiddos posing with the beautiful dancer.  The birthday girl is tucked in the back with a pink crown.

Rory and I made tutus for all her guests...even baby Harper got one. 

When is the last time you opened up a gift with this kind of excitement?

It takes a pretty cool guy to wear a crown.

My Girls
Rory has been taking ballet lessons and since Massie wants to be just like Rory, practice sessions are so much fun to watch.  

We finally got snow!  Rory and Massie with our neighbor, Piper (left).

Messy, but marvelous, Massie.  Check out those crazy blue eyes.

Hanging out in the car, being goofy.

Rory doing her thing on the balance beam.

As I mentioned, Rory has been taking ballet classes and I always bring Massie along to watch.  Here is an adorable picture of the little sisters watching their big sisters dance.

Rory and her mini-me.

The children in Rory's class were asked what their parents do for a living...here is Rory's answer that was tacked on the wall.  Since I struggle to explain what I do for a living I'm not sure that I could expect much more than this from Rory.

Until next month...