Halloween to Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are so many prep items I could be doing right now, stuffing, making another pie, prepping my turkey, but instead a very overdue blog post.  I am also anxiously awaiting the start of the Macy's Day Parade.  Honestly, in 35 years I have never made a Turkey Dinner.  Its one of my favorites and I have been very lucky that people in my family (Mom, Sister) have always made it for me :)!  Yes, I am missing them today, very much.  Missing the crazy spirit of the active household at my sister's, missing all of her really great food, and apps (I haven't made one appetizer) and of course the shopping.

I am so nervous about prepping dinner, that I have bought 3 turkeys.  yes, you read it right, 3 turkeys.  The biggest one, at 18lbs, is getting cooked today.  Fingers crossed.

Anyway, a big day ahead as our friends are joining us for dinner and then we will head accross the street for desert with our neighbors and finally I have volunteered to cook for the Shelter on the Island. Yes, a Ham and sides. Woah.

Our time between Halloween and Today has been a mix of fun, cold, more fun, and trips!  I started the trips with a three day adventure to the Girl Scout Conference in Anchorage.  The trip was entertaining, fun to get off the island and a little bit of an adventure.  Example, the plane to get off the island only had 20 seats, you could see the cockpit, and it was freezing.  Come to find out, this is not the  normal aircraft for such a flight. It was just my lucky day.  The nickname is the metal tube and that is just what this plane was a metal tube.

I did enjoy the shops, the smell of the mall, the Kohls.  It was a bit overwhelming and I had to figure out how to get it all home.  The Girls Scout portion was awesome. Met some really great people, including a lovely lady who lives in 600 square feet, in the woods, with an outhouse. Yes, I really do  live in Alaska.

Next up. I arrive home and 12 hours later Andy leaves for Petaluma CA.  His trip lasted two and half weeks and he had a great time. A training class with friends from the coast guard, good food, warm weather, and lots of craft beer and wines.  He brought some home to share. Yummy.

The girls and I stayed busy with Girl Scouts, Hikes, Swimming and a Horseback riding lesson.    We did enjoy our first snowfall.  It was a fast and furious 6 inches and then it rained, and rained and rained. So our 6 inches first turned into mountains of slush.  We were lucky as the temps rose and the slush instead of turning to ice, melted. Thank goodness.

I have found I am very good at volunteering.  I just can't say no, so in the past couple of weeks I have volunteered to cook for the Bachelor's Thanksgiving Dinner, work the book fair at the school, create a wreath for auction to benefit the Kodiak Arts Council, and lastly the Shelter Thanksgiving dinner.  I have also volunteered to plan and execute the year end camping trip for the Girl Scouts.  100 girls on Wood Island for 3 days. Excited about it. It will be a good adventure.

Most people are wondering about our daylight.  The sun rises at 9:21, but really it gets light a little after 10am and sets about 4:30.  You do the math, I am not good at it.

Temps range from 25 to 35 degrees. 

I hope everyone enjoys their Turkey day with friends. I will be cooking and shopping for the next couple of days.  Love to all.

PS. Cookies Sales will be starting in January. I will ship :)

Halloween Kodiak Style

Carving Pumpkins

Molly's Class Parade

Belle Trying to look sophisticated, since she has lipstick on

Obviously, I have not blogged in a couple of weeks, because I put the pictures on first and can't seem to figure out how to add the type up front. Oh well.  Now as the reader you get the "Treat" of the Pictures before the "Trick" of the type.

We have enjoyed October, especially the end of the month. There have been fall festivals, a small pumpkin patch, two school fairs, and then the trick or treat of October 31st.  Most of the people on the Island are asking "Where is the Snow."  Luckily,  we haven't seen any and the temps have been warm and rainy. Actually, there is snow in the higher mountains and it lovely to look up and see their white peaks framing the town.

We have also been lucky to have several night of the Aurora Borealis, unfortunately, I am never awake to see it!  The Aurora has to be seen on a clear night and you have to plan on waking up about  midnight and heading outside to check it out.  I have signed up for the alerts online and will try and get a few photos of the next one, as its a must see!

So, this year we had a vampire bride and Belle.  I tried hard to convince Amelia to tag along and be a witch, but she is a Belle at heart.  She loves a good princess movie and high heels.  Molly loves to be girly, but has a dark side with a fascination with vampires, zombies and all things scary.  Or maybe its a look into the edgy punk rocker side...who knows. It will be fun and/or challenging to see what personalities she explores as she grows up.

The town of Kodiak has trick or treating downtown for the kids.  Each business opens up and its a wild, fun, and crazy afternoon.  There were so  many kids and the girls got a ton of loot!  We had a lovely Halloween party at the neighbors house and then did some trick or treating around our street.  It was very quiet but perfect.  By 7pm we were all home and in bed.  

Right now our lives are school and girl scouts for Molly. Amelia and I have met some great friends and we have weekly outings with various groups.  I have heard the ice skating rink will be opening up soon, so by the end of the winter I am sure we all be skating pros!

Now, time to put away these pumpkins and take out the turkeys!