Santa Clause! And a New Camera

Here is Santa Clause! Naomi LOVED him! It was so sweet! She had the biggest smile on her face the whole time she was on his lap.
We went to the annual Santa Clause appearance at the Soldotna firestation. The boys loved it. They had cookies, hot cocoa, games, prizes, goodie bags, and a hay ride! It was a ball. I love that they put this on for the public. What a fun tradition.

These pictures are a little out of order, so bare with me. We cooked Gertrude, our big white 25+ lb turkey. You may remember her, Little Holts, from the summer. She served us well. So far we've had a beautiful turkey roast dinner, turkey noodle soup, turkey casserole, turkey fajitas, and I canned 7 pints of turkey broth. Mmmm! I've still got more turkey to use up in something. Tomorrow we'll see what I decide to make.

The boys and I made paper chains so we could count the days until Christmas. Tustin made the big snowman, Trayton the tree on the left, and Tracker, the little tree. I had to remodel Tracker's, he got a little scissor happy.

Here's the wishbone from Gertrude. Trayton and Tustin pulled it, Trayton got the bigger piece.

Aw, here's the other Santa picture. All happy faces. And Naomi smiling at Santa. :) Cute girl. I asked Santa for a bigger house. He said he'd send the elves over, but they tend to make their houses only 4 ft high. Bummer.

Okay so here's the start of the pictures with our new camera, the Rebel T3i. So nice! These are just random pictures. I knew Mom would appreciate them, so the rest of you and skim over these. ;)

Travis took this picture in a dark room while Naomi was SLEEPING! I'm so glad she didn't wake up. Silly boy.

Another pic in the dark by Travis. Handsome Trayton.

Sweet Naomi, on the table. This is quite a common occurrence in our house! Makes things a little stressful. This picture captures her "realness."

Making turkey noodle soup with Gertrude and Tracker. ;) Mary Jo gave me this awesome noodle maker last year. I love it. We can make spaghetti and fetuccini noodles with it, leave it a couple inches wide and make raviolis or something. Tracker was my big helper that night. He helped me cut some Alaskan grown carrots (from the neighbors) and flatten the noodles, then put them in the pot too.

Here's Tracker's dark photo shot. Cute boys!

I had to get Tracker actually rolling the noodle maker. He's doing a good job.

The beautiful noodles. Mmmm! Naomi likes to eat them raw.

Finished product. Doesn't that look good? The camera did great! ;)

Happy tummies. They loved it.

Hope you are enjoying this wonderful Christmas season!! Love you all.

Moose

We finally have seen a moose in our neighborhood! The kids have been pretty disappointed that we haven't seen them since moving to out house on post. This one here is a baby. It's at least as tall as I am.

Here is the pair of them. The poor mother had someone try to lasso her. Who is crazy enough to try to lasso a moose? She eventually made her way down to the school. They had a moose warning over the PA system before the kids left home that they needed to be careful. Only in Alaska!

Here is one more of the baby. They sure are cute, but I'd never want to be in the way of one that got mad!

Here is a little size perspective on the mother. She is taller than the truck, and a full sized trash can is almost able to fit under her belly. We grow things big here :)