We started preparing for Christmas
a few days ago. We both got out our mothers' cookie recipes and had a contest
to see who's
Mom had made the best holiday treats. The verdict? A tie.
.
Robbin is rolling out chocalate Alaskas. These are usually
chocalte reindeer on the Slaghts' Christmas, but we didn't have any reindeer
cutters. We made all manner of cookies, and must have used up 10 pounds
of flour. We had no idea how we'd ever get through them all without finally
getting fat, but we were saved from imminent weight gain at about 6:00
this morning.
I woke up this morning to the sound
of carolers at the house across the road. I was ready to be up anyway,
so I got up and got going. I put the cookies out and got water boiling.
Then I went out to feed a friend's dog team and invited the carolers over
to out place. The group was mostly made up of my students, and I wanted
to make sure they knew they were welcome. When they stopped by our place,
we learned that they had been up all night singing at people's darkened
windows. They even sang a few songs for us before coming in. It was wonderfully
festive, and started our day up in the rright mood for Chrismas. Anyway,
they all loved the Alaska cookies.
I took the dog out after that, and
was greeted by the original Christmas lights: the Northern Lights were
swinging around over Elim this morning. My day really started well, and
has continued to be good. (I think the Christmas rolls of today were the
best I've ever made.)
Here I am taking care of other pre-holiday business. Of course, Christmas must be accompanied by a big dinner. Robbin and I went out hunting for Christmas dinner yesterday, and got ourselves four little ptarmigan. Henry, the dog, helped as well. He enjoyed chasing the birds that fell. (Of course, he hasn't learned to bring them back. I was wishing for a retriever as I slogged through hip-deep snow after these morsels.) I'm cleaning them in the picture. I just removed the skins, and marinated them. Robbin is working on stuffing right now. In a few hours, we'll have a beautiful dinner with fresh bread, some canned vegie, and four stuffed little-turkey-things. It should be good.
A blurry self-portrait by yours truly.
Henry enjoys shredding wrapping paper.
Robbin has opened her gifts, and likes what she sees! She always likes clothes that keep her warmer. The hat is a Ravens football team one. Her Uncle Vic has season tickets to the Ravens game, and didn't like seeing Robbin forced to wear a Redskins hat of mine just to keep her head warm. So he helped us both out. The vest is from my mother. Pretty stylish!
Here I am looking studious (and stylish!). I have wanted to read the newest translation of Beowulf since I heard about it. Robbin was astute enough to notice and kind enough to pick it up for me.
Robbin is trying to clean up after we opened up the presents. Henry thinks that is a fun game!
The sun is going down at 3:00 in the afternoon on the elementary school. We're used to it. We even think we've got a lot of light this year; last year was much darker when we lived above the Arctice Circle. Also, we are feeling pretty chipper about the dim days because we just passed to equinox a couple days ago. Now, every day is a few minutes longer than the one before!
We hope you all have had a merry Christmas. Our day isn't over quite yet. This evening, we'll dig into our dinner, then head over to the church for the village's Christmas program. After that, I hear there are games all night long, and every night until New Year's! I don't know if we'll participate in all that, but this village sure has some Christmas spirit.
Happy Holidays!
-Chris and Robbin