The Winter Solstice & Time for Holidays

It's the Winter Solstice today . . . the darkest and shortest day of the year. Sunrise will be at 10:14 am, and sunset at 3:41 pm, with 5 hours, 28 min, 11 sec. of daylight.  Tomorrow daylight will be longer, for the first time since the summer solstice! Chance of snow today, and very warm for how it's been lately -- up to 31 degrees, so let's hope it stays in the 20s, a much better temperature for skiing!

Indoors, everyone is getting ready for holidays . . . our table is covered with the cards that haven't been addressed, the Christmas candy and cookies that I made, our calendars that we make each year with Alaska pictures that haven't yet been sent . . . and it's the dark, quiet time of the morning that I like to have to myself.

I remembered to start the amarylis AND the narcissus this year, and flowering bulbs make a big difference in December.  We love watching them grow, especially since they leap up inches at a time, it seems!

This was only about a week from the time it began opening to being in full flower.  Now to get a prettier pot!  The quilted salmon table runner came from a wonderful artist in Talkeetna!  We're headed back to Talkeetna for Christmas again this year, beginning tomorrow for Brian's 60th birthday.  We'll be staying at Talkeetna cabins and having a potluck dinner at The Roadhouse for Christmas Eve. 

The paperwhites, or narcissus, I had in front of the television when they first started, and I'd swear that we could watch them grow!  I eventually had to move them to the side on the coffee table, as they are now taller than the TVand very much in the way! 

And then, what do you do on those long winter nights?  Well, one of the things that I did was to copy an artist friend of mine, Herminia Din, an art professor at the university, who has a "Junk to Funk" project to recycle just about anything!  Here is a crocheted purse that I made up based on her designs, made out of plastic bags from two different grocerty stores. 

No new outdoor pictures today -- the snow has been beautiful!  I think we have more snow at the moment than maybe we've ever had here - two decent snows in a row, about 10 inches and 6--8 inches - that's a lot for Anchorage -- we just tend to keep it, and not go back and forth in temperatures as much as upstate New York has done in recent years anyway.  I predict skiing for today, so maybe some nice shots outside next time!  We'll be in Talkeetna til Christmas day and probably travel home Christmas night.  Jessica arrives on December 27 and will stay until January 5 - can't wait to see her too!