Wise Family: Sarah's Home!

I met some genuine Alaskan Natives from Barrow today! I asked them how many days of darkness they have in winter. They said it's not totally dark, that they have a few minutes of "dusk". He said the sun will rise for a few minutes in a couple of days. Take the quiz to see how many days of almost total darkness they have in Barrow during the winter.

The week started with Sarah arriving home for the holidays. The boys have been so happy to have her home, it's like a party every night of the week! I'm so glad they are out of school this week so I don't have to worry about tired kids at school. Maya had her last session with Susan at Birth Two Three. It was bittersweet. I took a lot of pictures for her scrap book. We will miss the wonderful therapists and the entire staff at Birth Two Three. They make every child feel like the most special child in the world.

On Wednesday I realized that we had only bought a couple of Christmas presents for the kids. I've been so busy with hockey that I haven't had much time to prepare for the holidays. I feel so bad that while all the other adoptive children are making holiday cookies and visiting Santa, Maya is hanging out at hockey rinks. Although being a rink rat has it's benefits. For example, she now has 15 new brothers and sister, plus their siblings, and about 32 new surrogate parents. How's that for an extended family? Even the guy that runs the snack bar at our ice rink loves her. He waves at her everytime she walks through the door and she says "Hi Jim!" and waves back to him.

Life on the road has a few benefits as well. This past weekend we were up at my brother in law's house for 4 hockey games. They took Chris out to my sister in law's house in Palmer to get a Christmas tree. We got to be part of their tree trimming festivities. Michael commented that this is the second family holiday we've horned in on this year. Only he said it in a much nicer way, as if we were welcome to crash his family gatherings. I feel like one of those men who has two separate families, each in a different city.

Between hockey games Sarah and I did some marathon shopping. Saturday we pawned Riley off on the Bordner family and had a girl outing at Fifth Avenue Mall. First I corrupt Maya with junk food, now I'm corrupting her with capitalism. Just doing my part to keep the economy from crashing. Sarah also got to spend some time with her old friends from high school, which gave her a break from us but did not help her catch up on her sleep at all! Ah, to be young and energetic, burning the candles at both ends. I so do not miss those days! She's young, fabulous and broke. I'm middle aged, tired, and semi-broke.

We have a break from hockey now until January 3rd. So this week I'm going to try and slow down, enjoy the holidays, make cookies with the kids, attempt to clean my house, and have lots of fun playing with Sarah while she's home!