Thanksgiving Recap and Flashback

Another great Thanksgiving has come and gone!  As always we missed our families, wished we could have been with all of them and had to accept the ritual of phone conversation as a substitute.  Trav and I did our standard "Battle of the Bird" again.  He wrapped his in bacon, grilled and smoked it.  I brined mine and then stuffed it with goodies and roasted it.  Honestly they were delicious and I was proud of both of them.  I do love the smokey, alder flavor of my Trav's turkey though.  

We had Coast Guard friends over this year which was great.  It always helps to have great conversation and share good food and drinks with people who feel like family.  I could not help but be grateful for all we had this year.  While life feels extremely busy and overwhelming at times, we had a beautiful year.  We learned a lot about ourselves this year, had to deal with difficulties, grow as a family, grow as individuals and try to become better.  I think one thing that I thought about quite a bit on Thanksgiving was how much a year can change your life.  Last year at this time our life was in a very different place. We were celebrating with different people and wrapping up our first year in Sitka.  Now, a year later, our social circle has changed, Sitka feels more like home now that we have been here 18 months and we are mentally preparing to head into what should be our final full year in Alaska.  Time flies by and with time comes new things and changes.  

I feel lucky to have experienced another holiday that allowed us to share our lives with others and add new laughs to our memory banks.  We have celebrated over the years in many different states, different towns, different houses with different friends.  I am always thankful for the opportunity!

Flashback:  This photo is circa. 2005.  Our first Thanksgiving photo as a family of 4.  We were living in Kodiak, Alaska and celebrating with our friends the VanSicklen's.  The kids were babies, Trav and I look like teenagers and we were obviously very happy.  I would give anything to hug and kiss those little babies again and have my hair that had much less gray sprouting out. 

Brrrrr...Yay!

As I write this it is 21 degrees outside with a windchill of 11 degrees.  We have enjoyed a relatively mild fall so far.  This weekend it got COLD!  As well we had our first snowfall.  It wasn't much, but it was beautiful 

Not only are we hoping that the snow will stick around so we can go sledding  but hopefully the colder temps. will help encourage "Mr. Bear" who keeps meandering our neighborhood to head up the mountain and go to sleep.  While I enjoy watching him lumber through our backyard looking for handouts, I don't enjoy picking up rotting garbage because he is capable of opening our trash bin or having to go out and do a bear check before my dogs can go outside.

I by no means want to sound ungrateful.  I live in Alaska, the land of untamed nature.  I sit on my porch in the freezing cold for 45 minutes waiting to see a bear come through the backyard.  This is one of the reasons we wanted to come back up here. To see and experience nature.  I just don't want him to eat my dogs because there is no more food left for him to forage in the woods.

Here are a few pictures of the dusting we got this weekend.  More snow is in the forecast this week!

          

         

                    

         

This last picture doesn't really depict any snow.  Its just a picture of the Russian Orthodox Church in town circa. early 1800's.  I posted this more so because of the two bald eagles on top of the steeple (that you can barely make out)  and also to point out the fact that the sun is setting on the beautiful, snowy mountains behind town.  It was 2:30p.m.  Thank you impending winter solstice for our lack thereof daylight. 

Remember November

November is a very unique month for me.  It kicks off the holiday season which I love.  Thanksgiving, colder weather, holiday movies, etc.  Also, it is a time for me to spend remembering.  November is always a month that takes me back to my childhood.  I spend most of the first two weeks of this month remember days gone by, precious memories and dealing with mixed emotions.  As I have recollect on this blog many times, November is the month that my beloved grandfather, my Papa passed away.  He was one of the most magnificent human beings I have ever known in my life.  As a young girl I split my time between my own home with my parents and my grandparents home.  Their house was home too.  I watched him drink coffee, we chopped and stacked wood, we stole his chair and we snagged the remote to the TV when he doozed off.  We went camping, we listened to country music and we had sleepovers.

As I grew older my relationship with my Papa just matured and grew.  He was still the same man I viewed as a superhero but by now I soaked up our conversations much more and his stature became something other then the man who swung me around the living room to country music and who I loved to watch chop wood.  He talked to me, truly talked to me about his life, his beliefs, his thoughts.  I started to see more then just his physicality but more so who he really.  He was a beautiful person with a deep soul.

By the time my Papa passed away in November of 2007 I had my own family.  My babies, Trav and I lived 4000 miles from him.  Papa and I still talked.  He loved my family, he loved me and I never doubted that.  In his final days, as he grew more ready to leave this life behind I sat by his bed side, just he and I and I told him everything that I didn't want to leave hanging.  I had never witnessed death, let alone the death of a man I loved so deeply.  His death was tragic but beautiful.  I made sure he know that he was very special to me.  He was not just anyone, he was my very special someone.

As the years passed since my Papa died, November is the month that I mourn the loss of him but I also spend quite a bit of my personal time remembering our talks, his smell, his voice.  I talk to the kids about him and we toast to him at dinner.  His death still hurts.   Not in the same way it did in the days right after he left us but it hurts.  I miss him.  I cry, I weep, my heart just hurts a lot in November.  Usually it is in private and it is quiet but November hurts.  November is also beautiful.  November is the last time I laid my eyes on him, held his hand, whispered in his ear.  It was the last time he spoke to me.  As we all watched him slip away to his family in heaven I knew my life would be different and that this time of year would never be the same for me.

November is special...it jump starts the holidays, gives me the warm and fuzzy feelings of the season and its the month I celebrate not only my Papa's life but my life with him.  I hope that everyone has someone in their life that means so much.   If you do, relish it.  Absorb it.  Take it all in.  Its absolutely worth it.

Papa, I love you!  Always~

Shorter, Darker Days...(warning: picture heavy)

We are officially into that time of year where its cold, darker and the days are short.  We don't spend nearly as much time outside and we are not as active so there hasn't been much to talk about.  I feel like we almost start to hibernate this time of year.  Now is when we dust off the board games, bring back family movie night and eat tons of comfort food.  All summer long we stay active, busy and outside to offset this time of year where it is almost impossible to do those things.  The mountains around Sitka are now snow capped and the snow line will slowly inch downward from here on out and the sun never fully rises high into the sky.  With Daylight Savings Time coming this past weekend the days will get even shorter and Mother Nature reminds us that while the summers days up here seem endless, the winter days can seem endless too.

To recap, October was a good month.  We were still able to run outside quite a bit, which is saying a lot for SE Alaska in October.   The kids are doing great in school, work sucked but its a new month, we celebrated Alaska Day, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series, the Oregon Ducks are still undefeated, Halloween is over (my least favorite holiday) and we are one month closer to the holidays.  I freakin' love Christmas!!

Picture recap:

                          

                          

                                

                                

                                

This past weekend had the first sunny days in what seems like a long time. We took Travi to the shooting range to make sure he was a good shot.  He can't take a shot at a deer if Trav isn't positive it will be a kill shot.  The boys headed out on their first official hunt together on Sunday. Taylor and I enjoyed a good walk in the cold sunshine and a Holiday Hallmark Movie Special. Yes...my daughter and I bond over a good, hokey Christmas love story.

Lastly and very important to me, we accomplished "Family Picture Day 2013!"  Each year in the fall I drag my unwilling family out for family pictures.  It's very important for me to have a picture each year around the same time.  I have done these pictures for several years now and as the kids complain and walk hunched over and sulking to various spots I remind them that some day when they are gone and have families of their own these pictures will be priceless to me.

This picture epitomizes our life in Sitka.  This location is one of my favorite spots in town.  Mt. Edgecumbe is in the far distance, the fishing grounds of the Sitka Sound behind us, the break walls that protect our harbors from the seas, the bridge that Trav crosses day in and day out to work and the gray skies that seem to hang over our island most of the time.  We are smiling and happy, just our family... the way it has been for almost 14 years!!