What'd you do on Sunday?

Sunday's are meant for lazing around over at our house. For me, that means sewing or baking. For Dean, making knives. For the kids...watching TV!

Dean's momma left on the afternoon flight, and we had church to go to that evening. So, we really didn't have much planned.

It was the "calm after the storm" in Kotzebue, and it was absolutely gorgeous. I mean, narry a skier was in their home in the dark afternoon!



A few days ago, I walked to the school to pick Kaisa up. I thought I was healed, but apparently I was wrong. Since that treacherous walk through the snow filled streets, my foot has been-a-bothering me. I have only today off, so I hope it just decided to GET BETTER. Otherwise...I don't really know, I guess we'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Anyway, I have a few hats on "order" and decided that I'd make one yesterday. My daughter and niece were super excited because the leather was PINK and the fox fur was WHITE. What princess wouldn't want a pink and white hat? Especially a handmade one that was warm and made for our weather conditions?!



Alas, it wasn't for them. But, both girls tried it on and declared that whenever I made theirs, it had to be the same as this one! (shyeah, right!)

I have a few hat patterns, and I don't like any of them. So, being the McGuyver I am...I made my own. AND I LOVE IT! Rather than that usual three piece back, it has four pieces, and therefore hugs your head a lot better. The top comes down to your eyebrows, exactly where you need it when its fifty below zero! And the flaps are perfect too. I am so happy with my new pattern.

So...an hour and a half after I started, this is what I ended up with.



And it fits her, JUST RIGHT!

How Bazaar!

The annual Catholic Christmas Bazaar was a hip happenin' place yesterday.



The "uzhe" were there selling away. (usual) Its better than being on Wall Street!

Aside from getting SUPER stuck on the side of the road and having seven men push my car out, it was a grand day! We sold a few knives, and LOTS of jarred goodies.



My table mates were awesome too. Sometimes you get stuck with boring people, or people you don't really know, but I lucked out, and had Cathy and Nina next to me. That means when there's a lag in selling, you can talk and talk and talk!



Of course, when you're at a Christmas Bazaar, you end up BUYING something too, and I did...I'll show you later though. Cause I got the DEAL OF THE CENTURY at this bazaar.

I even had to FIGHT with another person for it. I seriously, pulled out the fists and said, "Get your rotton stinkin hands OFF MY _____ before I punch you in the face."

And he did. Cause I'm sort of scary that way I guess.


Pampered Chef, Pelts,


Parky's, and


Purple Qiviut!

I've been to many a Bazaar in other places in Alaska and in America, and it's NOTHING compared to our bazaars. Where else can you buy some prints of Porcupines (ewww), Seal Oil for fifty bucks a QUART, a pair of knit socks, a fur hat, new Boots, a Bowie Knife, Encheladas, A skin sewing Ulu, Cookie Trays, Sealskin Mittens, and an Inupiaq Christian Songbook!





I mean, we aren't selling SNUGGIE's here folks. Or, wait, I WILL be selling Snuggies at the Boy's and Girls Club Bazaar on the 19th. (Sidebar: My daughter got a girls Snuggie and she LOVES it. So, I'm making some to sell!)





I did purchase two handmade ornaments for our aanatuk (poor bare) tree. One Eskimo Angel for Kaisa and one Eskimo with a puppy for Koy. We do get them one ornament every year, like "normal" people do, but they're always cultural. Finnish, or Eskimo. This year...Eskimo. Plus they were only ten bucks!





I also bought an Inupiaq Song Book from Judy Stein. I LOVE her. She is so awesome. She used to teach the kids all their Christmas "pieces" so they could get up in front of the church and say it! I am so happy with my songbook, I learned how to sing Amazing Grace in Inupiaq last night...I just sung and sung and sung. I wish I could actually READ music, then I might be even BETTER!



OK...so the DEAL OF THE CENTURY came from this guy...Mike.



I saw him unloading his knives and thought, "uh oh...competition," you know cause Dean sells knives. But, after I scored this baby...



I was OK! I got this hat for FIFTY BUCKS. I mean, you can't even buy LEATHER, and FUR for fifty bucks to sew your OWN HAT! I was so happy. Some guy tried to grab it from my hands and he quickly learned that you don't mess with Maija. I think he felt bad, and went and bought some popcorn balls from us afterwards.



So, I scored a hat, a songbook and some ornaments. We sold the usual, Cookies-in-a-jar, sourdough starter, blueberry jam, cranberry jam, Banana Bread, Cranberry bread, cookie trays and...KNIVES.



So, Dean now has a WEBSITE! Yay. Finally, its up and running. SIKSU'S KNIVES will bring you to the motherland. All of his information is on there, and he posts the available knives daily. If you're looking for a great Christmas Present, I'd suggest a handmade knife, or Ulu. (or a Snuggie, but give me some time to make them!)

Elf Yorself!

Look up!

The girls and I had SO MUCH FUN downloading these fun elf dancing video's! All you need is some faster-than-alaska internet and you're good to go!

Go ahead...ELF yourself!

Decorating Mayhem!

I hate decorating sugar cookies.

Seriously.

Every stupid year, I get myself into making and decorating hundreds of stupid sugar cookies. Don't ask me why. Every year, I also say to myself, "I'll NEVER do this AGAIN!"



But I do. I love to torture myself.

When I was a kid (and STILL today) my mom and us girls made thousands and thousands of cookies for our extended family. Now, I come from a family with over seventy FIRST cousins, on my mom's side alone. She has well over a hundred first cousins, and so on and so forth. She has aunts and uncles galore. Seriously. We're related to the entire town. Why do you think I married a white guy!?

Anyway, we bake and bake and bake. She makes sugar cookies and instead of decorating them, she would mix an egg yolk with food coloring, and us girls "painted" the cookies BEFORE she baked them. Let me tell you, it is the BEST decoration ever. And so easy.



The cookies all get put on a tray on CHRISTMAS, after we've opened our presents and eaten our traditional hotcakes and sausage, and we deliver until well past dinnertime. Everyone is SO happy to get their cookies, and when we don't come, the calls start rolling in.

"I was just wondering if we're getting cookies this year..." Don't worry, you are!

Now, WHY DON'T I DECORATE LIKE THIS TOO!? I don't know. I always remember that awesome trick AFTER I've baked my cookies. Don't forget, I live in the Arctic, so we don't have a lot of "decorating" things to purchase, we make do with what we have. Like canned milk, food coloring and powdered sugar! :)



So, again, I've tortured myself in decorating the cookies this year.

Sigh...when will I ever learn!? (Hey, I think I've heard my parents say that before.)

Blah sort of days...

Well, when I thought about what happened today, it seemed like a Blah day to ME. But when I think about what it seems like to other people, it might be sort of an adventure!

First, I decided that I needed to FINISH the slippers I started for Dean's mom, especially after she had "slippers" on her Christmas wish list. So, I did.



THEN, for Lunch, we had leftover Heart and Tongue Soup. Mmm, the BEST soup ever. Our favorite, the Tongue...it tastes like Patiq (bone marrow), which is ANOTHER favorite.



After that, I re-decorated the tree, because we CAN NOT FIND our ornaments. The sweat and toil that people (my kids, my grandma, etc) used while making all those handmade ornaments, is ALL FOR NOTHING. Cause we lost em. I mean, like they're really REALLY lost. Sorry. So, Corina gave us some awesomely beautiful ornaments to fill our void tree! THANKS.



Kaisa's been sickly for the past two days, and she stayed home again. I don't feel so bad, as her teacher said her class had NINE students in attendance today. Nine. So, I'm not the only parent keeping her child home. She LOVES to watch TV, but I also find her sneaking around and reading her books. (Yes, with HER sealskin slippers)



All day today, I've frosted hundreds of sugar cookies. Ugh...I HATE. SUGAR. COOKIES. I love to eat them, but DON'T MAKE me frost them OK!? Cause I won't.

So, guess what? Today, Grandma bought pizza's for dinner. I AM SO HAPPY for Frozen Pizza's!

(Come on now folks, don't forget, I live in the Arctic, so we can't just call our local Pizza Hut. We ain't got none.)

Tonight is movie night for the Lukins. We're watching "Night at the Museum." I can't wait.

See, for ME, it was a totally boring day. I don't know how YOU feel about it. I'm still freaking out that some of my blog friends can pick up POMEGRANATES off the ground and eat them up. I have to pay seven bucks a pop for each of those sweet seed filled globes of goodness. Sheesh.

Huge things...

...are happening in our house. Huge.



The prospect of owning a coffee shop has been in my mind for years. I've always wanted to own a quaint little shop serving great gourmet coffee, tea, smoothie's with love. WITH LOVE.



It has teased me for years. I KNOW we could do better than the current place-you-can-purchase-coffee from. Because they are not interested in the coffee, they are interested in making money as fast as they can, can't catch them, they're the gingerbread man. No love. No quaintness, as a matter of fact, its a little smelly in there right now. Ugh.



How absolutely unfair.



But, huge things are happening at our house. First off, I got sick, then Dean quit at Alaska Airlines. (boo hoo) Then started flying for a bush airline, and is on his two weeks "off" but may not be there too much longer either. He lost his father earlier this year and is coming to the conclusion that he might not want to fly anymore. That in itself is huge. He's a pilot's boy, who's only ever flown. Huge things.



As we go through all these trials and tribulations, we just are focused on each other, and our families. We had a wonderful time when the twins visited for Thanksgiving, and now Dean's mother is here for a week visiting. And I'm going back to work next Tuesday, the day of our Company Christmas Dinner. Sigh.



So, I'll just keep praying and hoping I can stick with this positive attitude thing. It's worked so far. I hope it keeps on working! (even though I do have more blisters on my feet and thumb...)



At least our Christmas Tree is up, and it doesn't even look like a Charlie Brown tree, like last years! Although we can't find ANY of our ornaments, which are all handmade or given to us by various family members. No Finnish tree star to go on top, no seal skin ornaments my children worked so hard on, no silly 1st grade toothless photos glued onto Popsicle sticks filled with glued on buttons, and no grandma's cross stitch ornaments this year.



But we have a few from Grandma, and a few stragglers we found here and there, so we're happy.

The PERFECT Gift!

Up here at our house, most of our Christmas Presents are handmade. Last year I made Dean a pair of Wolf Skin Mittens to use sort of like gauntlets on your snowmachine, or while you're dog teaming.

He was ecstatic.



He made me a traditional Finnish Witch Drum out of my perfect calfskin. I love him for trying. I was hiding my upset at the usage of my expensive calfskin that was supposed to be mukluks. Bless his heart!

I made mittens and mukluks and hair pins and sealskin everything.

From Koy, I got a handmade Ulu that he sweat and toiled on. It was perfect!



From Kaisa I got a card made with beautiful things that were found around the house. She "regifted" almost everything for everyone in the house. The thought that went into each gift was priceless.



This year, Maddie had a friend over and together, they made "Cookies-in-a-Jar." A very easy gift if you have access to quart sized jars. We don't, but thank goodness we have family and friends who do and bring them to us!



They measured each ingredient and I printed out the instructions. "M&M Cookies, Contents of Jar, 1 stick of butter, 1 egg and 1 tsp vanilla..."



After they're filled with goodness, we put some pretty fabric on top and a ribbon around the lid.

The perfect homemade gift.