Goodbye 2008 . . . Hello 2009

Dear 2008,
You will be missed.

January

February

March

March and April get more than one, because, well, March and April deserved it. Trust me. What I want to say is that March and April kicked a-, but what I will say instead (considering my audience), is that these two months were seriously awesome.

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Thanks for the fun.
Love, The Gibson Five

And Dear 2009,
You have some big shoes to fill. But I am confident you are up to the challenge.
With Much Hope,
The Gibson Five

Happy New Year!

Catching Up

During the past week I've written a few blogs that I never got around to finishing up and posting. Still, I wanted to share some stories and pictures.

Nighttime Walks
Blue Eyed Eskimo Boy
'Plan B' Christmas

Arctic Blast 08 has finally drawn to a close around here. Except for the mountains of snow in every parking lot in the area, it is hard to imagine the amount of snow we had here for 10 or 11 days! The Gibson are happy to see the rain, for sure. But we will definitely treasure our memories from December 2008!

'Plan B' Christmas

Well, we didn't get to Idaho for Christmas, and there were more than a few tears shed on both sides of the Blue Mountains about that. (Most of them on this side. By me. But still . . .)

Backing up though . . .
By Christmas Eve the snow had turned to slush, and even though my dad and Joel had brought our van home, the roads were even less drivable than the previous week and a half. An hour before we were supposed to go to the Christmas Eve church service, I found out how bad the roads were when I tried to run some errands that I just had to do. And got my van stuck. In 18 inches of slush. It wasn't awesome. Luckily it wasn't too far from our house, so I walked home.

So, we didn't go to church and our friend with a huge 4 wheel drive had to come and get us to go to my mom's for dinner, and later return us home.

Christmas Eve- new Christmas pjs . . . always.

My mom spent the night, and on Christmas day she had to walk home and get all the stuff for Christmas dinner and walk it back over to my house. I don't think our family has ever had to walk Christmas dinner around before, so that was a first. Luckily the slushy ice had melted enough that it was not deeper than our boots by then!

Waiting on the stairs on Christmas Morning.

But we did end up having a nice day. Joel said he thinks it is his first Christmas ever where he didn't have to go anywhere. The kids were thrilled to be home and play, play, play. Joel and Garrett (with occasional help from Sissy) put together Lego sets ALL DAY!

They were quite excited watching Daddy open the gift from them.

Sissy and Carter got G 'lockie talkies'. Score!

Oh, so snuggly! Carter was quite please with his new sleeping bag from Nana!

Sissy had to 'remodel' her room to fit her new AG stuff. A new bed for Kirsten (from Santa) and a scooter for Kit. (From her brothers.)

Carter playing with his new felt board from Mama.

Or That.

This morning at breakfast, before we started opening presents, I was reminding my kids about saying 'thank you' to people and being grateful after they opened something.

And because I know that Garrett hates getting clothes in presents, I said, "And what if you get something that maybe isn't your favorite? What do you do then?"

There was a right answer for this question, but our Garrett, completely oblivious to social rules said, "You say 'thank you', and then you ask them what store they got it at so you can take it back and buy something else!"

I suppose that's another option.

Blue Eyed Eskimo Boy

When I was a little girl, my parents taught school in waytheheckmiddleofnowhere Alaska. They had a villager make me a traditional eskimo kusbuk.

Last night my mom dug it out and had Carter try it on. For the record, boys do wear kusbuks in Alaska as well . . . just not usually with little flowers on it!

He loved it though and wore it for the next two days.
I'll have to dig up a picture of me in the kusbuk, for comparison purposes . . .

Nighttime Walks

One of my favorite things during this 'deep freeze' (so far . . . we're still in it, folks!) has been our nighttime family walks. We've walked to Safeway, to Winco, to Mazatalan, and when that was closed, to KFC. We've been to Walmart, Big Five, and of course, to Nana's house several times. I love how silent these nights are. I love the Christmas lights shining through the (many many many inches of) snow. It's incredibly beautiful, and like nothing we ever experience. Ever.

Last night my mom was having a tiny bout of cabin fever and wanted some company. So the Gibson Five trekked the 6 or so blocks over to her house. See our backpacks? The kids were set to spend the night, and can you even imagine how happy it makes me that Pearly Jo made the trip? Sissy spent several minutes getting Pearly in her warmest clothes, (which probably haven't been played with in over a year). She told me that she knows Pearly doesn't get cold, like a person, but she doesn't like it when Pearly the doll is cold.


I love nighttime pictures too. I know if I used the flash it wouldn't be blurry. But I just can't bring myself to turn it on during these perfect pristine nights.


Almost there!
They made it! Look at that deep trail Nana had to dig so we could get to her door.

Images from Arctic Blast '08 That Warm My Heart

(If the pics are too big and cut off, hit 'refresh' on your browser.)

Mucho Nieve

Here are some crazy snow pictures for our Idaho family who wanted to see proof!

Backyard:

Under there somewhere is our raised garden bed!
This table picture is from 4:30 on Saturday, and we thought that was a lot of snow! (7ish inches)

But this table picture is from Monday afternoon. WOW. Over a foot and a half.

Front:

Joel's Car

Ok, so they didn't really want to see proof, but this is too unbelievable not to share.