Thursday, December 20, 2012

Cold, cold, cold! The temperature today is -42 degrees, so we were not able to cut wood today. It’s too hard to take out the truck, trailer, and children in such cold conditions. We received 15 letters in yesterday’s mail…yay!  And, because the mail plane was late (it did not get here until 1:30pm.), we didn’t pick up the packages until today. So, it was like getting two days of mail! We received packages from my sister, Roger’s sister, and our friends from church in Wisconsin, the Scherzers. It was so much fun to see the boys opening the boxes and their expressions of delight. The Scherzers sent us a little fake, green tree with ornaments and lights to put on it. It adds such a nice green look in our cabin especially since our real tree is losing needles by the pound (if that’s possible!). 

We also received craft supplies, so we spent part of the morning creating a huge mess crafts. The boys had fun; and since it was too cold to spend any length of time outside, the crafts provided a nice distraction. Our friends also sent us some banana bread wrapped in newspaper. Roger and I spent about 20 minutes reading the paper that the bread was wrapped in to catch up on news! (I think we’re a little news deprived!). My sister sent Christmas movies, lotions, coffee, and small gifts for the boys. The older two received little guns that shoot marshmallows. Hannah also sent along a bag of marshmallows for the guns, but Travis and Wyatt keep eating the ammunition… much to their brother’s dismay! 

Roger walked over to visit with a dog musher today. They had a good visit, and Roger enjoyed lunch with them as well. We are headed to the school in a little bit to enjoy the Christmas program. It’s sure to be a cold walk with the little ones, so we’ll have to dress warm and get out the hand warmers.

We had a great time at the Christmas Holiday program. Probably about 40-50 people attended, which was a good turnout considering that the temperature was about -45 degrees. The school kids did a good job with their program, and it was fun to play the hand bells in the community group. After wards, we had desserts and punch. One of the differences between having desserts here and having desserts down south is the fact that up here there are not nearly as many pre-packaged goods. Out of about 15 different treats, only one was a store bought treat. Everything else was home made! It was all very good...cheesecake, jelly roll, chocolate muffins, oatmeal cookies, etc. Yummy! We had a good time meeting and visiting people.

Every year, the Native American Indian Counsil (I think that's right) picks two villages from the surrounding area to give gifts to the village children. There are about 36 different villages that they do this for, and this year Manley and Minto were the two villages chosen. A gift was given to every child in Manley! These are nice gifts like remote control cars, Barbie dolls sets, big Nerf guns, and other gifts! Every child received a gift, including four little Robertson boys! Garett received a remote control monster truck, Chandler received a construction vehicle and trailer, Wyatt a pull-back racing car and car hauler, and Travis was presented with a sit and spin toy! The boys are enjoying the new toys, and it was so nice to have them included in the toy receiving. It was totally unexpected but a great surprise!