Merry Christmas, We Watched Hachi!

Merry Christmas! What a great way to start the holidays, with the arrival of my mom. She made the long journey (almost 24 hours with the layovers) to spend Christmas in Juneau. Although she just got here, she has already seen more than Ian and I have, at least more shopping stores.  

On her first official day in Juneau, my mom put on her big girl pants (as she likes to say) and headed out to conquer Juneau. I had to work and was a little skeptical about leaving her alone in a new place. Well let me tell you, she did very well on her own! I called her mid morning to check on her and she had already made several friends and had hit all the hot spots.  When I got home, I found her walking down the street with gifts and fresh baked bread in hand.

I took my mom to hike Mendenhall Glacier after work on Monday. This is the view on our way to the glacier. It was like a little winter wonderland. The large pines were covered with  snow and it was just gorgeous. We just love Juneau, I believe it is one the prettiest places in Alaska. If you ask my mom, she will probably agree. I think she is already looking for real estate. 

Behind my mom is the glacier. You cannot make it out all that well, but when the sun hits it is is almost turquoise. We are actually walking on the lake in this picture. It is a popular place for skate skiing, snow showing, hiking, etc. I am hoping to take her out later next week for a little cross country skiing followed by glacier climbing...I TOTALLY think she has it in her!

And we stumbled upon an iceberg. In the summer these float around the lake creating a canoe obstacle course.  In the winter, their main purpose is to give refreshing licks (see below). 

And no, her tongue did not get stuck. 

Happy times, yes indeed! Nothing brings the spirit of Christmas except a tear- jerker, right? After finishing my Christmas sweet potato and spinach quiche we settled down to watch the true story made movie, Hachi.  It is worth the rent so I will not create a spoiler alert, but lets just say that it's emotional roller coaster left us needing a nap afterward. Ian thought it was funny how my mom and I were sobbing. Just can't help us animal lovers. 

These are the Christmas gifts that I made for my mom. The paper pieced cross has three beads down the front with the letters "W B F"- Walk By Faith. These beads actually came from bracelets that we made together when I went to Germany in high school. We both wore them and promised not to take them off until I made it back. I found them when I was home a few months back and thought that it would make a great memory quilt for her. 

This is the second art quilt that I made for my mom. For those of you who know her, she is  a real cat lover. I had a lot of fun putting this together. 

This is my Christmas gift, a tree! I just loved this little felted tree and have big plans for it. Ian and I don't usually do gifts, so this was a real surprise from my mom. I was telling her about this artsy shop across the street from our apartment and how they had this little tree that I wanted to get.  Of course, she went the very next morning and bought it for me.  Its super cute!

T 

You know how it goes with holiday pictures, someone always has to take a bad one, or two......I just wanted one good Christmas picture with Ian.....But for some reason the little princess just could not keep his eyes open. The flash was hurting them too much. So, we kept trying.......

And trying.........

And trying.....

And finally, we got one!

He was not all that thrilled about my attempts (and humor) at his lack of photogenicity. I think it was mostly because I was taking him away from his Christmas gift from my mom, a rare vintage book.  My guy just loves his books!

 In all, we had a very wonderful Christmas at home. I am so happy to have my mom here with us.  So Merry Christmas from our family to yours!