Offspring Opinions, No. 2

Joshua's POV: "This month has had a lot of ups and downs due to people mostly but some good things have happened like getting a bunch of really good food and snacks. But also some people at school are just always annoying you too much and sometimes physically harming people as well. But aside from that we have had a pretty good time at the house and with most of the people at school as well. So that's my update for this month."

Emily's POV: "This month was a little colder. I like the volleyball games we have had as a class. There was a trapper that came down and I enjoyed learning about trapping and going to go set the traps. While we were going to set the traps in groups I went with Josh and Jadyn, they put me in charge of carrying the log to put the trap on. I was almost to the tree when I fell through a 5 foot hole. If I were 2 inches taller I could have gotten out, but I'm not 2 inches taller and I was stuck. I had to yell for Jadyn to come help me out. That was my trapping experience. Last week Jadyn and I were decorating our classroom and found some snowflake lights, but they were tangled. After 5 minutes of untangling we were going to put them up but had to go to morning meeting. I was laying them down but they weren't moving so I kicked the lights. Don't do that. It felt like I stubbed my toe really hard, but I didn't check on it or anything. After 5 ish hours it still was hurting so I checked on it, I found out that the snowflake light split my toe on the top. Later the night I could not fall asleep because it hurt. It started to turn a yellow color and hurt a lot more. Right now I've been putting zinc something on it to get rid of the infection, but the infection is the top of toe and spread to my cuticle of my toenail. Hopefully it goes away soon because I want to play volleyball again."

Post salt soak, 3 days out

The volleyball crew

Jadyn's POV: "It's been two months since we moved here, but it feels a lot longer than that. The endless expanse of white beyond the doorstep never gets old, but I often find myself missing grass and the feel of sunshine. School's coming to a close for the holidays next week, and with the holidays comes my birthday. I'm turning 18 this time around. It makes it a little more real writing about it, but no less inevitable. It was strange spending Thanksgiving in such a different environment, but it's finally starting to feel like home here. It definitely feels like the holiday season, and I'm sure this Christmas will be nothing like the ones we've had before. It hasn't been easy, but I think moving here has been a positive experience."

Philip's Toffee and egg nog!

Yes, he's mopping the walls.

Avery's POV: "It has been a while since we've left. I miss the way we do holidays. I miss all the family visits with our Aunt Lizzy, Uncle Kyle, my little cousin Grayson, Mama Sue, and Papa Joe. All the holiday baking with my family ( especally Lizzy's famous chocolate chip cookies) is something that I truly miss. I think that something I am really going to miss is Christmas morning when Mama Sue, Papa Joe, Lizzy, Kyle, and Grayson see us open up our Christmas gifts and have brunch and watch movies and just bake and hang out. I'm really going to miss years past Christmases, but this will be a new Christmas to put in the books."

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As you can tell, we've had some ups and downs this past month. We are keeping an eye on Emily's toe, using salt soaks, honey and antibiotics, hoping it is on the mend. Otherwise, we may have our first Medevac experience, which we are not eager to acquire. Everything feels a little heightened out here, especially when it comes to injuries and health, and it's nerve wracking that even something as inocuous as Christmas lights can pose a threat.

As the kids's posts reveal, we are missing our usual surrounding for the holidays, even if we are still enjoying the arctic white.

Snowy walk to the post office

Snow across the river

We even spent most of the day today watching the Hallmark Channel, in honor of Papa Joe...something we wouldn't do if we were back in Texas. :) We're also still hoping the gifts we ordered for the kids get here in time. As of right now, half of them are sitting in Anchorage, waiting to be loaded on a plane for whenever Kaltag gets bumped up in the queue. We also completely forgot about wrapping paper, so this year's wrappings will be all the packing paper that has come with some of our mail. It's okay though, because one of the goals we had in moving out here was to get away from the materialism that was prevalent back home. It will be a simple and reduced Christmas this year, indeed.

We also decided to go ahead and upgrade our website for increased media storage, so that I can continue posting pictures in our posts. No one wants to have to click more than necessary. I'm working on setting up a YouTube channel to post videos. Of course, we still haven't recorded much just yet, but rumor has it that the wolves have begun crossing over portions of the river that have frozen through, and have been spotted here in the village. So promising footage is on the horizon!