Up Nort

All things Merry and Bright

Day before Christmas Eve.



Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day

Day after Christmas

I don't care where you go . . .

but you can't stay here.



before:



after:

Merry Merry!

Solstice/Birthday

For the 2nd Monday in a row we went skiing together. It was John's birthday and he wanted to go skiing more than anything. Grandpa came to take Odin home, but first got to watch Odin ski by himself. Odin wriggled away from John and was showing off a little bit. We were astounded at how well he could turn.



The candles on Johns cake put out enough light that no flash was needed - but the frosting did taste a bit smokey!

Noodles

This evening when the doorbell rang I was expecting our letter carrier with a box from my mom, instead it was FedEx bringing a birthday present (a baking stone with a 10 year warranty(!) In the last 8 years I have been through 5 stones!).
Odin was so excited that the FedEx man brought him a box full of packing noodles - He was in them for over an hour. The clean up was tricky today, he was clad head to toe in synthetics and the air is pretty dry.

J. Winter

My senior year in college I went to Oregon on spring break with two great friends. We experienced a bunch if interesting things like spending a freezing cold night in a yurt that was colder inside than outside (that theory was untested, but man it was cold). Mostly it was neat to be in a completely different climate and vegetation area.
One day we went to a wax / oddity museum (how did we find these things?). After touring the exhibits we found ourselves in the gift shop where we the "Gene Machine"was located. The"Gene Machine" you ask.. Please, let me explain. It is a unique photo booth that takes pictures of two people (myself and Julie in our case) and smashes them together (keep in mind this was almost 10 years ago). As I remember you get to select the gender of your "child".
When the image emerged we were a little creeped out. At some point on the trip we named 'him' J. Winter.

Anyhow I still have the picture. And it is still pretty creepy.. Especially since I live now with this guy. . . .


Strange indeed. . .

Last week in pictures

Gingerbread house pre-decorating.


He is in love with my old Holga, he refuses my offers to use a digital camera. He keeps on asking if we can get film for it.


Do you see what I see?

It's beginning to look a lot like. . .

Last weekend the plan was to collect the dog from John's folks house - he had been there over a month as we were traveling.
We thought it might also be nice to find a Christmas tree - the old fashioned way - while up north. Mind you it is about 250 miles between our house and theirs and we were not sure we would want a tree in our house after 200+ miles on top of a car. So, we crafted a plan to take Fritz, the mercedes, and put the tree inside. Yes, wagons are the only way to go. The only downside was the seats... They are a bit droopy and after a couple or hours so were we.




Our Tree

Giving Thanks

We are all feeling refreshed after a blissful week in southern California. Everything was perfect, weather, beach, house, company. It went by a tad fast, but not without leaving us all with loads of great memories.


Odin was such great company. I enjoy traveling with him.

We ventured to the Happiest Place on Earth for my birthday. He went on all the rides. The real ones, not just the kiddo stuff. He really liked space mountain- sat next to me. I don't know if he could see much, but really how much is there to see?


We explored some tide pools that Jamie and I used to walk to from our grandparents house. He was fascinated. Actually we were all pretty excited to explore.