Wintery Gatherings

Now that winter is in full-swing, a lot of my activities have switched from spending every free moment outside (not to say I don't get outside as often as possible!) to gathering with friends for visiting indoors. Plus, the Christmas season brings lots of gatherings and parties, and so I've been quite busy spending most of my free time with friends - not too bad! A couple of weeks ago, a few friends drove up from Anchorage to the valley, and I made cranberry apple cider with some of the cranberries I picked this fall. The best part was the way it filled my entire apartment with an incredible aroma. YUM. Last weekend, I went to an Ugly Sweater and White Elephant Gift Exchange Christmas Party at a friend's house in Anchorage - so fun! We all looked pretty ugly, and got some pretty ugly gifts - a successful night, to say the least :) This weekend is a cardamom bread baking night with friends, and then a cookie exchange the following day. And the weekend after that - a trip to the reindeer farm in Palmer! (I am sure that will get its own blog post). Lots of fun happenings!

Work is going well - I've been working on the website lately - I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have! www.cyak.org - and have been getting ready for upcoming winter retreats after the first of the year. Soccer is going well too. I am officially on Christ United's Coed A League Team now, so I am looking forward to playing with them year-round. Maybe one day I'll bring my camera to a game so I can share with you all that way! Ok, that's my little update for now. Sorry its so sporadic!

The White Elephant Gifts....and a little tree!

Some of the Ugly Christmas Sweater contestants.

Blurry - but necessary photo to show Nate's FOOTED PJs. hahaha.

Beautiful friends! Robyn, Julie, Amy and Ingrid. Robyn's sweater had LIGHTS.

Nathan and Ingrid recently rescued Pierre the pup. This is from a few weeks ago, but it is so cute that I had to include it! Ingrid is feeding him raspberries. They love each other :)