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Christmas Eve

December 24, 2013

We knew Christmas was going to be different this year with both of our families being so far away, so we planned to make the most of what technology has to offer and Skype present opening with them. Thomas has "chatted" with them several times on the iPad using FaceTime and Skype, but we thought it might be better if we could make it work on the much bigger TV. Turns out that our TV has a proprietary webcam, so we had to buy that specific one. Which is of course not available anywhere in Anchorage or on Amazon. Amazingly, I found it on ebay and even managed to get it here on time. Go me!

We did test runs with both families and Thomas ran away from the viewing area both times. So I didn't have much hope for success with present opening, but it went great! We chatted with my family first and the first present he opened was met with cheering on the other end of the chat, so he was all about getting more cheers out of people. He was a total ham for both families.

But in typical toddler fashion, he was much more interested in the bowls I got from my mom than most of his toys. He threw his legos in there and spent most of the evening "mixing" in the bowl. It was pretty adorable.

But the best gift exchanged by far was Matt's idea. He decided to buy our nephews harmonicas - all three of them. Which they opened while we were chatting and proceeded to play them all at once. Matt of course thought it was hysterical and was playing conductor for them from 4000 miles away. I would say we're in for payback next year, but there isn't much musical they could give Thomas that Matt wouldn't love as well.

To truly appreciate the symphony, we had JoAnna send us the video she took. Because we knew someone had to have taken a video! It was awesome!

It was a Merry Christmas Eve for all and all were ready for a good night. Well except the people with three harmonicas in the house... ;)

Cookies! And a Visitor...

December 23, 2013

Matt had decided that we should put lights on one of the trees in the backyard. There is one that is a perfect little evergreen right outside the back windows, so that was the one that we chose to decorate. Unfortunately we guessed wrong on how many strings of light it would take and were one short. We bought another string, but hadn't gotten around to hanging it yet. So I was determined to get it on before Christmas.

I grabbed the lights and the dogs joined me on my quest to finish the tree. On the way over there, Natalie had me seriously distracted. She was in snow up to her belly trying to decide how to use the bathroom and it was the most hysterical thing I had seen in a while. So hysterical that I missed the fact we had a visitor until it huffed at me...

Matt and I are still debating what I actually said when I saw a moose about 20' away from me, but I didn't make it to the tree with the lights. I managed to get all three of the dogs back to the house without them noticing our huge visitor.

Of course, once we were all safely inside and the adrenaline wore off, Matt and I were much more concerned with getting photos of the moose! We used the zoom lens and stayed close to the doors, but she wasn't really all that interested in us. She wandered off after nibbling on our trees. She showed back up in the neighbor's yard at sunset and settled in for a nap. Much more exciting than my usual view while doing the dishes!

And I had been putting it off (well mostly because it's late when I get home from work...), but I really wanted to try decorating cookies with Thomas this year. So I made a batch of peppermint pinwheels - I figure we will save the candy cane shaped variety for next Christmas. And because it is Matt's favorite, I made a buttercream icing to put on top instead of the usual glaze.

It only took one cookie to realize whichever cookies Thomas decorated were going to be germ laden treats. So we gave him his own little bowls of decorations and limited him to two cookie palettes.

But of course he wanted to help his Daddy decorate his cookie too...

At some point he realized it wasn't just the decorations that were edible and lost all interest in decorating the cookies. Instead, he was more concentrated on devouring them. Unfortunately the cookies were a little crisp thanks to the fact they have actual peppermint candy pieces in them that melted and then solidified on the bottom. He was content with attacking the icing though.

But not sharing. I'm not sure which of the girls was begging, but I'm pretty sure this is him telling them to get lost. :)

And of course things just went downhill from there. He had icing smearing all over his face, his glasses and in his hair. But he had fun, which was the point anyhow. And I timed it so that this event occurred right before bath time. Smart momma!

The finished cookies (decorated by Matt and I) ended up being quite the hit with the friends we shared them with. The cookies alone were pretty (I left one unadorned so you guys could see) and addictive, so adding goodies on top of that was just asking for trouble on consumption levels. Speaking of which, I think there might be one or two left...

Oh, the Spectacle

December 21, 2013

In Alaska, they do vision screens at 18 month appointments for all of the children. This was new to us - I don't think they do vision checks in Texas until much later. But apparently there is a statewide initiative to catch vision problems early to prevent lazy eye. It's a pretty neat camera that looks like a radar detector. They turn the lights off in the room and then take a picture of the child's eyes. And given the spacing and focus of the retinas, it can recommend referrals for children that might be at risk.

And, of course, we got flagged for a referral.

We didn't have any particular reason to think he had vision problems and they told us that it is like most screens in that it flags children that are fine in order to catch most of the ones who aren't. So the follow-up time comes and we go to a pediatric ophthalmologist. I figured you couldn't get a 18 month old to read letters off of a chart, so I was interested to see how they would test his vision. More camera-like tools and some good old fashioned have the child look at a toy and watch to see when they focus on the toy.

Turns out the screen didn't mess up - our kiddo is really nearsighted. :(

The ophthalmologist reassured me it wasn't "the worst he's ever seen", but that his focal distance was only about 18" from his face. And he spent time looking at his eyes through magnifiers to figure out the best prescription for him - apparently it will be refined when Thomas can actually give some feedback, but that this "ballpark" prescription is better than nothing.

Picking out the glasses was a bit of a nightmare. Tommy did not like us putting things on his face. We hoped that once the glasses helped him see, he might leave them on. But when his real glasses came in and we got them fitted, he didn't do any better. The guy there suggested a few things to help ease the transition to glasses which mostly involved distracting him as soon as they were on.

But mostly he just pulled them right back off when we tried to put them on him. So this morning, we went full on distraction mode. Matt snuck them on Tommy while I played peek-a-boo with him from across the room. And he seemed to get that something was different. I walked him around the house and pointed at things far away. We have been a bit worried that maybe he didn't need glasses - he can spot the dogs across the room and says "ball" when they are across the room. But turns out he's just really good at identifying fuzzy objects.

He was pretty good at wearing them most of the day. He still ripped them off his face occasionally and hid them in a cabinet from us at one point. But overall, he wore them most of the day and seemed like he didn't mind them. So I guess he did need glasses and we should be thankful that they caught his vision issues so early. Most kids don't get screened until grade school, so at least he won't go the next 4 years not being able to see us from across the table.

And it doesn't hurt that he looks super cute in them! :)

Thomas & Santa

December 19, 2013

As promised, the photos of Thomas and Santa from the Christmas party at work. He went from "who is this guy" to "get me out of here" in the space of two photos... *sigh* Maybe some day he'll get the whole concept and like the photo op.

Turns out a lot of the parents stood there with their kids and were in the photo. Yeah, that might have prevented a freak out... I guess you live and learn as parents - next year we'll just stand there with him and hope it goes better. "/

Inside Entertainment

December 15, 2013

Since it was snowing most of this weekend, we did spend a good part of the time inside. Luckily, we just finished a new play toy for Thomas - his felt Christmas tree that his Nonni had cut out for him while she was here. (I know, it took me forever to get it up even though it was mostly all done by someone else...)

Tommy really likes his play tree. He's not great at putting the ornaments on the tree, but he sure excels at taking them all off. And quickly - it took several times of putting all the ornaments on the tree to get a photo of him pulling them off. That little guy is fast!

Of course, he kept trying to pull off the presents at the bottom too - which are glued on. So it required a little bit of oversight to make sure the whole thing wasn't ripped off the wall. Next year I'll probably find a better way of securing it than push pins... "/

Doesn't she look dashing in her winter sweater? This sideways glance is her usual look these days. I interpret it to mean "I'm cool here until that kid gets too close... Then I'm *out*!"

Also high on the list of indoor entertainment, Thomas' cardboard space shuttle. Seen here throwing a toy space shuttle from inside the space shuttle...

His Granny (Matt's mom) bought him this after I came to Alaska. I didn't know about it (or a super cool wooden moose-pony) until our shipment arrived. It just looked like a big flat cardboard package, but the awesomeness of it was apparent once Matt put it together. Thomas loves this thing! It gets some pretty rough play, so it is currently in need of some serious repairs, but he can't get enough of it. It has doors that open and close on either side, but half the time he climbs in from the front or back. I don't care how much tape it takes, we're going to keep this thing around for a long, long time. Look at the smile on this kid's face - it's worth an investment in some duct tape. ; )

Let It Snow!

December 14, 2013

This weekend was predicted to have a lot of snow. Which was exciting to us, because it's still new and exciting to the transplanted Texans. As always, I remained skeptical of the forecast though - it's notoriously wrong up here. And I've been excited about upcoming snow to have it never appear. But this time - it snowed!

And snowed...

And snowed!

When there was a break in the snow, Matt went outside to shovel the driveway. I think it was his third time this weekend to shovel. He figured staying on top of it is the best method. (He's right - Duncan and Brittney are currently in Talkeetna and their driveway has snow that was up over my tall snow boots!)

Tommy and I figured Matt would like some company, so we bundled up and went outside to play in the cul-de-sac while he was hard at work.

Of course, it's hard to resist playing with Tommy while he is around looking so cute. Matt brought over some snow for Tommy to check out since he was so curious what his dad was doing.

Of course with all that snow right there, you know some of it was going airborne... And Tommy thought it was hilarious. I guess this boy would be alright in a blizzard, because the snow falling on him was the funniest thing he had experienced in a while. :)

Another Company Party!

December 11, 2013

Apparently work really likes to throw parties for families up here. Which I think is pretty awesome! And since the Halloween Party was so fun, there was no way we were going to miss the Christmas one. And in a bit of coincidence, Matt was already dressed up and we got a good family photo! Thanks as always to my personal photographer, Brittney!

We even stood in line to try to do the obligatory photo with Santa. I've technically gotten two of him already, but neither one were very good. So I figured he was already in a great mood and dressed so festively, the third time *had* to be the charm!

Not so much... But I guess every person has to have a photo of them losing it on Santa's lap... They are supposed to post the photos online for us to get copies of at some point, if I get it - I'll be sure to share it. It's pretty awful / hilarious!

Luckily there was a clown there making balloon animals that Thomas *did* like. I mean, clown or Santa? Not the one I would have placed money on. But he liked him and loved playing with the balloon dog he got from the clown. And since his dog matched his shirt, I may have gone a little crazy with photo editing. Sorry, that's what happens when you find the photo editing software you've been wanting forever on sale right after Thanksgiving! :)

Holiday Train

December 8, 2013

The upside to having friends in Alaska is that they become your surrogate family when your family isn't in town visiting. Which means that Brittney and Duncan got the honor of joining us for the Holiday Train this weekend! None of us had ever been on such a thing, but it sounded like fun anyhow. I think Thomas is technically a little younger than their target audience, but with Santa, caroling and hot chocolate (for us!), how could it go wrong??

Brittney and Duncan were much more coordinated than we were - look how well how all three of them are sporting their holiday colors. (I can take credit for Thomas - his sweater even had a train on it!)

See? And technically black is always coordinating... :)

I let Matt dress himself. I probably should have said something like "Hey, we could get cute Holiday Photos if we all dress up." Thinking of two outfits was challenging enough, obviously... ;)

And Santa finally came around for photos. Let's just say Thomas was not all that impressed. I think he was much more curious who these people were trying to sneak in the photo of him and his dad! The audacity!

All in all, I think everyone had fun... until the very end. Apparently handing out a bunch of candy at the beginning of a train ride guarantees a meltdown of *all* the kids thirty minutes before the train ride is over. I get the feeling it might be Brittney, Thomas and I next year while the husbands either stay home or go skiing... :)

Thanksgiving in Talkeetna

November 30, 2013

Matt and I came up to Alaska last year to visit the Hydens for Thanksgiving as a test run to see exactly how cold it gets. That and to go have a Thanksgiving feast at the Roadhouse in Talkeetna. Needless to say we loved both Alaska and the feast at the Roadhouse. So this year, we decided to stay in Alaska for Thanksgiving and go to the Roadhouse again for their family style Thanksgiving dinner.

Last year, we stayed at the Museum Apartment about a block away from the Roadhouse and we really liked it. Unfortunately, it was already booked by the time I called to reserve rooms. But the Little Cabin Out Back was available. The only downside was that it didn't have a bathroom - the one inside was literally 10' away though. I heavily debated this fact as I usually have to go visit the bathroom in the middle of the night, but decided it was worth it to not be in the main house worrying about who Tommy was disturbing if he woke up crying.

Then my whole family decided to join us. The small cabin just got super cozy...! And all kidding aside, I loved the cabin! The floor got a little chilly the second night when the outside temps dipped to -24 degrees, but we just put Tommy in bed with us instead of leaving him close to the floor in his playpen. And that boy is a great heater - as well as the thermostat controlled fireplace in the corner of the room.

And there wasn't *too* much grumbling from the family about the cold temperatures. The Roadhouse is super family friendly and their side room had a fireplace for dad, games for Tommy and puzzles for Mom & Heather. We did manage to take a short walk outside just to say we did and so I didn't feel silly for bringing Tommy's full snowsuit. And he was quite the hit in his snowsuit - some other random visitors to the Roadhouse were taking photos of him and talking about how adorable he was.

And what's a walk outside in -24 degrees without a giant icicle to play with? Of course, he dropped it in about 2 seconds, but he was pretty excited about it anyhow. Like father, like son... :)

Moving Day

November 25, 2013

Finally moving in to the new house! We closed on Friday, but the movers couldn't come until today! What kind of torture is that?!? They're dropping everything off today, then they will come back and do all of the unpacking tomorrow.

I was kinda shocked to see three trucks show up to drop off our stuff... Who knew we had collected so much?

And isn't our house so cute all decorated in snow?? :)