Season's Greetings!

Season's Greetings to all 14 of my loyal readers!

The days are so short near the solstice, we have to take our Second Walk by 3:30 p.m. if we want to go headlamp-free.

After every significant snowdump, I re-open our spur to the trail system via snowshoe.

Nowadays, Raven accompanies me.

I think I do a nice job, if I say so myself.

Cricket says, "Thank you mama. I don't like to work hard any more."

Cricket sure likes kalestemz!!!

Raven also likes kalestemz!!!!!

Do you think they are comfy? I sure hope they are comfy.

Every year on the Solstice, some friends of mine with Pavva Iñupiaq Dancers drum and dance and sing to welcome back the sun.

Here is a story of Gazhee, from Asikłuk:

On Dec. 2, 2011, one of my FB Elders wrote this: "During the clear crisp night in Igloo, AK, cracklin of dogsled runners whistled thru the ice as several dog teams were getting closer to gathering of many villagers. It was beautiful, the moon lit the snow covered una. Some drummers came out to greet the visitors to this great gathering during the shortest days of the year. This was the yearly gathering; great regalias of fur, feathers, skins of animals, with many types of drums; the big one was the box drum. A 7-day celebration was beginning, with food, sharing of village life, and then dancing began.

Introductions..Elders speaking...and then the story-telling through dance; a beginning of the GAZHEE."

It worked! The sun came back!

Raven like COLLYFLOWERZZZZ!!

And Cricket also likes COLLYFLOWERZZZZ!!

Raven pondering the sun:

This is at "high" noon:

I kinda got DL to smile!

Homeward bound:

For Christmas, I got a hoity-toity freerange ham. It was good!

And I made a classic, all-from-cans, green bean casserole. It is all goopy and sounds like you are walking through a swamp when you stir it, but it has the sweet, sweet taste of nostalgia!

And I made a pineapple upside-down cake for the first time in maybe 10 years. It called for an absurd amount of sugar, but it was tasty!

Happy Holidays to you and yours. May you find light in these dark days, and remember that the light will return!

As surely as this ball returns. 437 times until my hand is numb. :D

A season of gratitude

This upcoming Saturday is the Solstice, then the days will start getting longer again. I'm always a bit taken aback to consider that it is officially the First Day of Winter. Over Thanksgiving weekend, we got our first real cold snap:

Cricket stays warm by snuggling, sometimes even with me, if DL is unavailable.

For Thanksgiving, DL, like my sister, loves a classic green bean casserole. And the green beans must be from a can! Schlop! Schloop! Gloop! LOL. My sister says she tried to make a green bean casserole from scratch using fresh green beans, fresh cream, nice mushrooms, and caramelized onions from the stovetop. It was... fine! Tasty! But lacking that certain je ne sais quois... I believe that is the taste of nostalgia!

It looks just right beside the stuffing!

Here is the rest of our spread. M brought the fresh green beans she had lightly steamed. So we had real vegetables that were not gray in color, hahahahaha.

I got a local turkey from Sunny Side Up Farm in Delta Junction.

There it is! All of the classics!

It was a good day to have the oven on all day since it was so cold. Cricket took her princess seat by the fire.

But Raven, having a thicker coat, still insisted on Second Walk. A pretty afternoon.

Brrrrr-tacular!

My special friend April was at Sirius for the weekend. Her furever family adores her and she is doing great; even their toddler is a very gentle little lad whom she adores! But they went down to Anchorage for the weekend so I got to visit her. She was very happy and kissy!

She's lovely, isn't she?

This was my first leftover creation: A turkey-green-bean-corn-mashed-potato-stuffing pie. It was pretty good!

Mmmm leftover pie!

In addition to two batches of turkey enchiladas, I also made mashed potato pancakes. That made Thanksgiving last until the following Monday!

Finally the last day was soup. Look at how Princess Cricket happily guards the stock.

Classic turkey noodle!

And the pan was finallly clean on Thursday. One week!

Look at my fuzzies! Aren't they nice!

I had to attempt a family portrait, of course.

Wishing all 14 of my loyal readers a peaceful "start" to winter!

Happy Winter!

This year, we decided to try a new thing--a Winter CSA from Offbeet Farm, which is right up the road from us. The premise is that they grow storage-friendly veggies and store them and distribute them throughout winter. Our first share had kale, a pumpkin, carrots, daikons, turnips, beets, onions, and garlic.

A lot of those things lend themselves well to simple roasting with olive oil.

Raven seems comfy with us, don't you think? She's all, "Raise your paw, raise your paw if you're sure!"

She is so goofy!