December trip to Alaska

Well, for some reason I just haven't felt like blogging! I don't really know why, except I have been feeling a little lazy lately. Or rather I've been having a fairly busy life, and so when I actually have down time blogging doesn't equate to what I want to do at the moment.

Whatever the reason, I've fallen drastically behind :) So let me touch on some highlights from my December trip to Alaska, keeping in mind that I've actually had another trip to Alaska since then, so things may be hard to distinguish :)

Let's see... well, of course in December in Alaska, you definitely have the picturesque look of Christmas. There actually seemed to be record snowfall for December, with the snow coming all the way up to the top of the fence in my family's yard - it looked like a big swimming pool full of snow!

One of my fondest snow memories was going around a friend's neighborhood and singing Christmas carols. We go through this area every year, and they were doing it long before I even knew this group of friends. But I've gone with them for quite a few years now, and I absolutely love it. How great that there is a time of year when it is fully accepted to randomly go up to people's front doors and sing to them? Love it! And I love seeing how happy people get. Some houses even give us treats! Part of the fun this year was that it was actually snowing while we went out, and it was that beautiful, big snowfakes falling from the sky. So it was fun to abandon all hope of remaining dry... and go ahead and jump in some snow piles! It was almost too fun :)

I also used to sing with a professional caroling group back in the day, and my absolute favorite part was the tour day where we would go to several different nursing homes in the area. The arrangement of songs we would sing, with 4 part harmonies and such, were so amazing to be a part of. Well, the director of the group heard I was coming up, so he asked if I would like to join them for the tour day--would I ever! I was actually suffering from a cold, but I still had a great time going everywhere with them. It ended up being quite the day of service, because that night with my Folk's Tales friends we helped lead music at a Boy Scout dinner that they were throwing for some families in need.

Now, I was visiting Alaska over both Christmas and New Year's which afforded me a chance to go to parties and see lots of people that I might not otherwise see during a visit. So it was great to catch up with a lot of people.

I guess it bears repeating again, that I was also able to take part in the one-page play festival that happened the first weekend I was there. I already posted some photos, but I thought I would tie that in with this trip.

Anything else? Well, as I mentioned, over part of this time I was actually kind of sick. While that's not always the best thing, it did force me to stay home and get lots of visiting time in with my family and the dogs :) So it wasn't all bad :)

I'm sure I'm forgetting something at this time, but these are definitely some great highlights. Sorry that I don't have pictures :) A certain *someone* gave me a disc that didn't end up having the photos on it. You know who you are!