'Tis The Season

Big weekend of pre-Christmas activities around these parts. First up, the Winter Wonderland at the Coast Guard Base, courtesy of MWR. It's so awesome that the Coast Guard opens it's doors to the community and puts on great events like this for the kiddos. Hooray for the USCG! Activities like Candy Cane building kept rugrats entertained while awaiting turns on the Christmas Cruise.





First, Frosty welcomes us into the spooky lair. But it's not spooky, it's Christmasy. We see Santa's Workshop, then step into our human powered vessel.

Pretty sure Ashton was one of our engines.

Cruising by boat, we catch a glimpse of the Grinch, the Ghost of Christmas Past, Santa in Hawaii.

The cruise ends, then it's a tromp through Madagascar before running in to Santa and the Mrs.

In the video, he's initially asked for hockey stuff for when he is bigger (I didn't catch that part on tape), just the discussion of the fact that he will get bigger and his slight confusion over his Boppa's favorite hockey team, but remembering correctly that his dad does have a hockey jersey at home (well, actually football jersey but who's picky?). By the way, Senor has been quite shy of Santa throughout the entirety of his life, but has recently decided that it is the necessary step in the present getting scene.

Santa has an early present for the kiddos.



It's surprisingly delicious. Far tastier than any we've ever found on our own.

Then, it's Skating with Santa. Santa has already beaten us to the rink (the advantages of travel by flying reindeer), where he's taking a few laps, occasionally announcing some prizes, and singing with the choir. Santa's a pretty good skater, it turns out. And he has a nice 5 'o clock black shadow too!

Our lucky night - Putumayo CD and one of the grand prizes... $50 to spend at the Skater's Edge! (Santa came through for Boodah early! He really pays attention!)

This one deserves a close-up!

The rain lends itself to indoor activities, so the team embarks on a home-made fort decorated by some expressionist art. Paxson Pollock. It has a ring to it. He has been repeatedly saying that he has a baby named Jackson in his belly. Anyway, both kids are into the mission.

In this picture, you can almost see how stoked Stokes is. That grin is pure glee!

Who wants a hug?

Flight of the Conchords, playing in the background, kept our ears entertained during the painting. Those funny New Zealanders!

And, interior decorating. Double-fisted.

The fort is a byproduct of our buffalo purchase. Realizing that with frequent 40+ temperatures we wouldn't be storing large quantities of meat outside very successfully, and knowing that our fridge's freezer space wouldn't be up to the task, we got a chest freezer. Here's Stokes, Che, Trotsky, and the freezer.

We watched Food Inc. this weekend. It's a great documentary. The dude who wrote Fast Food Nation figures prominently. It's a serious look at the food industrial complex and how they use tax dollars to fund needless wars and weapons to bomb distant lands, like Obama did in Yemen the other day a week after picking up the Nobel Peace Prize. Wait a minute, that's the military-industrial complex. Oops.

Okay, back on topic... The food industrial complex is equally sordid, and it's making lots of us fat to boot. (Boppa is getting fat and is happy to have somebody else to blame it on.) Seriously though, it's a great documentary. Anyway, it's helped us get back to our food consciousness roots, like knowing where and what and who and how and all that of the food we eat. (Incidentally, we did some Happy Cow milk research, and accordig to Cornucopia learned that Organic Valley is the best milk option available to us Alaskans who don't have their own cows. Go Wisconsin farmers! Horizon and O brands get low marks.)

It's actually kind of hard to know a lot about what we eat, but it's basically our goal to away from more processed items and move toward naturally occurring items. Which is one reason why we're thankful to live in Alaska, where a lot of protein is available that hasn't been fattened by corn and hasn't been wallowing in its own poo for most of its life! Mmm.. poo free meat. Delicious!

Our happy buffalo was delayed by icy roads, but it will be here tomorrow. All natural, kodiak free-range buffalo. And we are even getting back to our roots - the buffalo herd has origins in Montana. Here's a pretty informative article about the Kodiak ranching scene. Anyway, we're happy to be eating more healthily and humanely.