Three Donuts Full

 It's the last work day of the year and I am three donuts full.  This past week or so has been a sugar frenzy.  I went home for Christmas for the first time in a few years and I ate a lot of pie and cookies.  I also got to see my family and remember why I love it there so much.  Even though they didn't have any snow to speak of and I totally forgot I even had a camera for the first several days.

 Dad showed Sis and I his current dreams for the land and we soaked it all in while getting rained on.  Very weird weather.

 You can easily tell where he has mowed down the understory and where he hasn't.  I think this is one of the fairways.....

 These are the first nine holes, I think.....sometimes I get them mixed up.  And I failed to get a picture of the new bridge my nephew helped build because I was trying to get this shot. 

 There was also the (now) traditional assembling of the gingerbread house with my niece.  I got to drive the icing this year.  At least she didn't ask for any giraffes on the roof this time.  But as usual, she was pretty specific about what went where.

 And they will be eating sugar for a while.....

 Wait, who is the kid and who is the adult again?  I always feel like I am 12 when I do this.  It's a ton of fun and every year is different.  This year the kit had a tree that you had to cut into four sections and then glue (icing) back together to decorate.  I tried to break the tree pieces apart, but chickened out and asked Sis to cut them with a knife.  Then it was her fault when they broke into a million pieces.....sorry about that.

I improvised a support stand for the remaining uncut tree and we decorated away.  And had tons of candy leftover when the decorating was proclaimed to be done.  I'm already looking forward to next year....when I will have more time to plot....instead of knitting presents on the plane and after the drive....lookout world, I'm getting my life back!

Light

See that distant light over there?  That's what I felt like after meeting with my advisor this week.  I expected the worst.....and it wasn't bad.  The view from campus just got a little better.

Gobble Gobble

 I did a little traveling for Thanksgiving this year, back to POW Island.  After the five millionth time I was asked, I think I determined that I haven't been there in 3.5 years. 

Despite not leaving the state for the holiday, I managed to spend as much time getting to the island as it takes to get to another island.....a tropical warm island.....called Hawaii.

I flew into Klawock this trip instead of arriving in Hollis.  It was a different perspective and a hillarious expeditious ending to a very slow journey.  I mostly spent the long weekend inside, and even had one 24 hour period where I didn't show my face outside.  It was delightful.  And then the phones and internet went down, so it was very peaceful thesis writing. I particularly enjoyed a couple encounters in stores - people recognized me but couldn't really figure out who I was.  I did meet up with some old friends and made a couple new friends (yes, I'm counting the cats).

True to SE travel fun, I took the ferry over to Ketchikan the day before my flight north.  I stayed at a very nice hotel and took the tram down the hill to town near dusk.  The bookstore has moved - hillariously only a block or so.  I was very nerdy and found out with my iphone. 

The next time it's super cold in Anchorage I may just brave this journey again.....or maybe just to Sitka, that's only two stops instead of four.