Finishing out December

This month has flown by! Rich has been super busy at work with all of the holiday parties and banquets but he did have most of Christmas Eve off and we had a quiet day at home, made a turkey dinner for ourselves, relaxed and watched a couple of movies. I also made pumpkin pies and cut-out cookies, which I am still enjoying. :) I talked with my girls, grandkids, and my mom. It's always a little bit sad for me on Christmas since we have no family here with us and Rich is usually working but I kept myself occupied reading, listening to music, playing Scrabble on Facebook, doing chores, watering and pruning plants, and eating pie and cookies. :) After he got off on Christmas night, we went to the employee dinner and socialized with the rest of the staff for awhile. I was off work yesterday but he was on the job so I just hung out at the house doing more of the above. After he got home, we went to the store for our Monday Senior Discount grocery shopping and decided to take a ride around town to see the decorations and lights. Some people here in UniSea housing did a great job on these snow people, didn't they?! Really cute.

One of the more festive houses in town

The walking bridge across Iliuliuk Creek

Earlier this month, we had a girls' dinner while we were all in town--we've been rotating vacations and travel for months! Andrea's stepmother had given her an "Occupy the Bering Sea" hoodie for her birthday back in the summer and the rest of us were highly envious. Guess what we all got from Andrea for Christmas?! We love our hoodies! Above--Melanie, Tammy, Andrea and Sonia.

It's been snowing like crazy and the cats are not quite sure what to think! They want to go outside and then they don't want to go outside. Ajax, especially, will whine at the door to go out, and then immediately want to come back in. The housing and maintenance guys must have been off for the holidays because no one came to shovel for several days (yes, we are spoiled living in company housing) and we had some accumulation going on! Rich decided to shovel the walkway and the outside steps because it was getting so bad. It was a big job but he was up to the task. Of course, we are happy now that the guys are back and we can be lazy again. We appreciate them!

I hope everyone had a very happy Hanukkah or Christmas and that 2012 will bring us all more peace, love and understanding.