Christmas in Ice (North Pole's Ice Sculpting Competition)

Ray, Stella, Scott, Samantha M, Freddie and Samantha

As you can imagine, there are limitations to what folks can do outdoors when it's zero, or below. Even the most accomplished skier won't ski when the temperature is lower than -15. There is; however, an emerging event--ice sculpting competitions.

Ice activities begin in November with the presentation of the Turkey Carving (in ice) on Thanksgiving Day. Following this initial Holiday, this ice art will be transformed into a life size Santa Claus driving his sleigh pulled by his team of reindeer. (Visit our photos at: http://www.danielhauer.com/ to see this life size sculpture. Once you're on the site choose "portraits" and our name will appear)

BP hosted a Saturday picnic and free admission to the event. We enjoyed our short time there, and continue to be amazed at the "small world" in which we live. When we finally found two seats at a table in the cramped, small heated trailer they were next to a couple who hailed from San Antonio! They've been in Fairbanks since 1991 and now call this home.

The children’s play area features playground equipment made entirely of ice and snow.

Take a stroll thru the ice sculptures and ENJOY!

Ray was brave and took a wild ride down the ice slide!

He then tried out the kiddie slide.

Our Visit to North Pole

For those of us who still--BELIEVE--a visit to North Pole was a must and a dream-come-true.

Early in December we took a drive out to see how Santa and his reindeer team were doing. We found Santa talking to those who had stopped in and some of the reindeer were resting and a couple were eating.

Check it out for yourself!

Thanksgiving at 535 Baranof

Our first Alaskan Thanksgiving was a blast!

We hosted a few friends and gave thanks for all with which we are blessed.

Our guests included--

Stella, Freddie and Samantha. Stella and I work together in the Admin office of Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. They are from El Paso. Stella's husband--Phillip, although stationed at Fort Wainwright--is presently deployed to Iraq.

Shannon, Ken and Liam. Shannon recently transferred from Colorado with Banner Health. She is part of the IT department, where her work includes keeping the cardiology (computer/electronic) equipment running so no one's open heart surgery is jeopardized! Whew!! sure glad it's her job and not mine.

We had plenty of food, fun and laughs. We're especially grateful that their company helped us thru the holiday.

Winter...Brrrr!

Hi, Everyone!

Sorry it's been quite a while since we updated everyone on life in the frozen tundra. We've been a bit busy settling into our jobs as well as continuing to unpack. Although, we've managed to enjoy a few events.

The question everyone continues to ask is about the weather. How cold is it? Are we keeping warm? How much snow?

How cold is it? Cold! With some regularity we've experienced many days below zero. We've even experienced a few -10, -15 and -20 days. This weekend (today, in fact) is supposed to be the coldest, yet. Today's "HIGH" is supposed to be -22 with the low at -30.

Are we keeping warm? We are! With the correct cold-weather gear it isn't unheard of that folks are outdoors, but this Texas gal is quite fine staying indoors and thanking God for heating fuel! We're also giving thanks that fuel prices have come down since we arrived. While we were expecting to pay at least $500 in heating oil fuel and electricity monthly, we're estimating it's probably going to run about $375. We had our second heating oil delivery today. The other luxury we give thanks for is a heated garage. It's made it easy not to experience the cold when I get into the Explorer in the garage and Ray kindly drops me off at the front door to the hospital. He's the unfortunate one that gets to park the vehicle and plug it in.

How much snow? The record shows 10 inches, which our backyard confirms. We didn't realize the depth until the evening we went out to take our Christmas card photo. The snow here isn't unpleasant. It's dry and for the most part just falls off the vehicles and even shoes. Sure, there's some ice and some snow has an underlying layer of ice, and there are some slippery spots to drive thru around town. But, for the most part it hasn't been an incovenience.

While it's cold and there is snow on the ground, we were able to experience and enjoy an evening of fireworks. Albeit, a short firework show, with the cold it was long enough.

Enjoy!

2008 Holiday Fireworks at Pioneer Park (aka Alaskaland)