There's been a MURDER!

Hi, All:

Sorry for the downturn in writing as of lately; life got a bit hectic with the holiday season.  But now that that's in the past, let's focus on . . . . well, the past.

Right before the break we hosted a murder mystery party at our apartment.  The game was called "The Icicle Twist," so we decided to buy it because we figured it wouldn't take too extensive of costuming for us folk in Alaska.

Well, we were wrong.  The parts were a bit more intense than intended, but our friends did an amazing job dressing up.  We cooked some delicious food (stuffed mushrooms, salmon spread (thanks to MBC), a chili with cornbread, and s'mores and cookies (thanks, Tiff!) for dessert.  We also decked out our apartment to look something like a ski lodge.

POP QUIZ:  why are they called S'mores?!

ANSWER:  because once you have one, you'll always want . . . SOME MORE!

This is Aesha (the surgeon), Dario (the bodyguard), and Tammy (the ski shop owner) reading their respective parts.

Michael (the national security director), John (the P.I.), and Lindsey (one of the people at the party) all getting into their roles as well.

Tiffany (one of the people at the party), Rebecca (a flight attendant), Henry (a guest), and Elena (a guest) figuring out what questions to ask.  Note that to get the apartment setting correct, we bought this amazing fireplace DVD and had it playing in the background.  It made awesome crackling sounds and everything.

For the astute observer, you'll notice those are our cross-country ski boots by the TV -- warming by the fire.

Everyone is acting their roles!


It was a ton of fun and we definitely intend to host more of these in upcoming years.  We won't ruin the ending for you, but if you can guess the murder weapon off of this post alone we'll be very impressed.  Tiffany and Aesha were able to do so before even playing the game!

We also both went on family vacations these past few weeks.  Tammy went to DC and northern VA to go skiing with her family.  She stayed in the cold and snow.

Steve went to California with his family.  He experienced the true meaning of fire and ice:

These days, it's actually getting pretty warm up here.  It's above 30 degrees this week, and the snow is starting to melt.  We're expecting it to get cold again soon, but this is an interesting break.  We're also getting more sun now that Dec. 21 went by.  We have time to go yet before we feel much of the effects, but every day it gets a bit brighter for a bit longer.

We've also started putting together a bucket list of things to do while in AK.  So far the list is as follows:

Ice climb, sea kayak, catch and eat a salmon, snow machine (go on a snowmobile -- they call it a snow machine up here for some reason), fly an airplane, sky dive, dog sled, run with reindeer.

If you want to join us for any of these, or have any other good ideas to add, let us know!

Hope you're all keeping warm!