Thanksgiving and Cross-Country Skiing

Hi, Everyone!

It's been an exciting holiday season here in Alaska.  On Thursday evening, we went to Justice Fabe's house for dinner.  It's an annual tradition for the clerks in town to go over there and bring a food item.  Justice Fabe, in turn, makes duck and turkey.  Although we didn't get to sample the meat, it looked amazing.  And all of the sides were delicious. 

We brought three items.  First, we brought margarine rice.  This is an Indenbaum (Steve's Mom's side) family recipe consisting of rice, margarine, mushrooms, and onion soup mix.  Not a whole lot more to it.  But it is delicious.

We also brought a salad.  In our haste, we forgot dressing.  But Justice Fabe whipped one up, and it was even better than the store-bought version we were going to provide.

But the best thing we brought was a pear-cranberry sauce.  Tammy found the recipe here: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/pear-honey-cranberry-sauce/Detail.aspx  You all should try it.  Even though it is not Thanksgiving anymore, this is worth making any time.  It was amazingly delicious.  Hooray for Tammy's recipe-finding skills!

Then we decided to fill this weekend with cross-country skiing (and studying, don't worry Mrs. Ram!).  We started out on Saturday with Henry, Rebecca, Aesha, Tiffany, and Jon (Tiffany's fiance).  We went to a new location called Russian Jack.

As a forewarning before we show you pictures, know that Steve did not have any pants to use for this sport, so he had to buy new ones.  He bought the special nordic kind.  He looks ridiculous.  But here are the pictures:

Then today Tammy stayed home to study while Steve went with Tiffany and Jon out to Eagle River again.  This time he brought his camera, so he can show you all how beautiful Alaska's winter wonderland is.

The snow is staying on the ground and ski season has begun.  After a few weeks of gross "what do we do?" weather, we're back on track with outdoor activities!  Hooray!

Hope you're all staying warm where you are (including John and Lindsey who are stuck in AZ, which means we get to hang out with their dog and cat one night longer).  Happy holidays and let us know when you're coming to visit.  If you're into skiing, now is the time to come: http://www.alyeskaresort.com/

Talk to y'all soon!