What Do You Do When It's New Year's Eve and Outside It's Thirty Below?

I was invited to a New Year's Eve Cyber Masquerade Ball by Geogypsy.  In the afternoon on New Year's Eve I looked out my window and it was 30-some below.  I thought about staying inside and making up a fantasy New Year's Eve Ball, only for a brief moment.  Instead I went to a New Year's Eve party, Alaskan-style.

First, we put on our costumes bundled up and put on our party hats.  My granddaughter Sydney was ready.

All of the costumes looked remarkably similar in the light from.....

 ....the bonfire.

There were fireworks--there's always fireworks on New Year's Eve to make up for the lack of fireworks on the 4th of July when it doesn't get dark in Fairbanks.

There was a great deal of conversation and laughter as everyone gathered around the bonfire, with trips inside to sample the yummy snacks.  Sydney was delighted to get to stay up late on this special night because the party was at her house.

After the party, we snuggled in our warm beds, because still on New Year's Day it's 30-some below.

Other people's masquerade ball experience was much different.  To see how others celebrated go to Geogypsy's blog (our Cyber-Masquerade hostess) by clicking on the photo below.  

Playing With Fiber

While we were on our roadtrip we visited my son and his family in Mt. Vernon, Washington. My daughter-in-law Andi is a fiber artist. Here she is working in her studio, or perhaps I should say playing in her studio. When you have as much fun as she does while she is in her studio you really can't call it work.While we were visiting she was preparing for an upcoming show.

She does quilted wall hangings using a variety of techniques.

Marty built a frame for one while we were there.

She uses some very colorful fabrics.

She also does wearable art, including handbags and jackets.

She makes book covers and coffee sleeves.

On an earlier post I had a photo of a piece she had hanging in the History Museum at LaConner. Click here to go to that post.

The show she was preparing for included 10 of her wall hangings.

If you want to see more of her work you can go to her website and check out some of her projects. She has also begun a blog.

The Great Christmas Caper

Debbie of Happy Days posted about starting her Christmas shopping and wrapping presents to keep her kids and grandkids from peeking before Christmas. I promised her a story of my experience on a Christmas about 40 years ago.

I was a young mom with three little boys, Brian, Darryl, and Jeff. Jeff was the baby, Darryl was two years older, and Brian a year older than that. The year of their Great Christmas Caper Jeff was too young to take part. Hey, Jeff, here's one time when it paid off to be left out of your big brothers' antics! I think it was the year they were two and three, but it could have been the next year. 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring--oh, wait, that's a different story!

It was the week before Christmas, and I had worked hard to get the tree decorated and the presents all wrapped. My boys were nestled all snug in their beds, or so I thought. Very early in the morning I woke to the sound of rustling paper and squeals and giggles. I crept out to the living room, although I already knew what was going on. My little darlings couldn't wait for Santa to come. They had snuck from their beds and the Great Christmas Caper was on. They couldn't read, so didn't know which presents were theirs. Their solution was to open everything, Grandma's present, Great-Grandma's present, etc. They ripped the paper off everything until they found lovely toys just for boys. Oh, the joy of it all! They were in heaven, playing with all their wonderful presents. You can imagine the chaos they had created.Now, here's the dilemma. Do you let them have the toys and just say, oh, well, or do you take some other action? I don't know if I made the right decision all those years ago, but I wrapped all their toys up again, put them under the tree, and made them wait until Christmas to have them. They knew what was in each package, and I think the wait until Christmas was even harder for them than if they hadn't known what was in the boxes. Those sweet little imps are all grown up now with children of their own, but I still vividly remember the sinking feeling I felt when I woke up and heard them playing so happily in the midst of their Great Christmas Caper.