Happy Holidays!

Hello everyone,

Due to the long holiday break, I will date these posts for you.

December 22: The weather was perfect, 20 degrees and no wind. Jeff and I decided to make it a mail day. We left our cabin at 8:45 am. We have been getting some snow lately and the wind has been minimal, so the road was completely covered with snow. We skied the seven miles to the gate. Unfortunately, we didn't see any animals, but we did see a lot of tracks. We saw plenty of moose tracks! Also, there are coyotes everywhere. We often see their tracks and hear them howling. Well, it was a long ski to the gate. I am still not very good at skiing, so I fall down a lot. I managed to smash up both of my knees! We made it to the gate, stuck our skis in the snow, and headed out on foot for the last four miles to the Post Office. We had five packages!! Plus, our boss met us with more filters for our water system. Luckily, he gave us a ride back to the gate. Both of our packs weighed a miserable thirty pounds. Can you imagine? The seven mile ski back to the cabin was brutal. I was already very sore and tired, but there was no other way to get there, of course. We made it back to the cabin at about 4:45, just as the last light was leaving the sky. I pretty much collapsed when I got through the door. On the bright side, we were rewarded for our tough 18 mile day with lots of goodies!

December 23: Today was the most beautiful day I have every seen, anywhere. We got about six new inches of powder last night. I was still pretty sore from the long trek yesterday, but I couldn't resist getting outside to get a better look at the mountains. It was the fist time in about a week and a half that I could actually see the mountains. Oh, what beauty! I shoveled some snow, then retired to the couch. No work for me today! The temperature topped out in the teens today, and it is currently negative one degree (at 8:00 pm).

December 24: It sure doesn't feel like Christmas Eve out here. I wonder if Santa will find us. Today was another beautiful day. I hung around the house most of the day. I baked some homemade cinnamon rolls (it is a tradition back home at my parents' house) and baked some rolls. I also painted the Christmas cookies my mom sent me (another family tradition). I headed outside for a little bit of fresh air and mountain gazing. Everything is a clean, bright white. The snow drifts are getting big quickly.

December 25: Merry Christmas! The cinnamon rolls tasted awesome, and Santa did find us after all. The temperature was in the teens and there wasn't a cloud in the sky! Oh, and there was no wind!!!! Jeff and I decided to have a marathon of games (cards, darts, and DDR). We feasted on a big Christmas dinner, and watched lots of Christmas movies.

December 26: Another beautiful day. Some many blue days in a row will spoil me! Jeff taught me how to down hill ski on the small hills around the hotel. It was actually a lot of fun. Plus it does provide quite a workout, hiking back up the hill to ski down. Tomorrow we will ski or snowshoe (we haven't decided yet) out to Swiftcurrent Hotel to make sure none of the shutter have blown down.