Kicking Off The Holidays

I've almost been in Alaska for 6 months! I can't believe how quickly time is passing but's its incredible how many new experiences I've had so far. It's finally starting to feel like home as I'm getting the hang of my job and the people I've met are becoming true friends. And good thing because this year was the first Thanksgiving I've ever spent away from my family! I'm not going to lie, it was a little hard.

I started off Thanksgiving with the 5k Anchorage Turkey Trot. It was a brisk 15 degrees for the 11am run, and the race actually sold out with 1500 participants, triple the showing from last year. After starting the morning off a little hungover from Erin's delicious cocktails the night before, it was nice to get outside on the beautiful sunny day. And I got to use my studded shoes again :) They were definitely needed on the icy roads, I slipped a few times even with studs! So I took smaller steps for most of the run, but still managed to finish without stopping or falling, win-win.

Turkey Trot finish in 35 min

The crew pre-trot... Sorry I'm stealing your photos Emily

Emily, Erin, and I post-trot with a turkey

My first Anchorage Turkey Trot shirt

After the run, I got to FaceTime a bit with my parents. My extended family was gathered in at my Grandma's house in Arkansas for the holiday. My mom kept sending me texts throughout the week of the yummy things she was making, I was extremely jealous. I did get a tasty traditional meal at my bosses house though. She invited me over to eat with her family in the afternoon, and I brought my favorite green bean casserole and pumpkin cheesecake. Afterwards, I headed over to another feast at Lindsey and Bethany's house, which was called "Sweatsgiving." Lots of good friends, lounging around in sweats and enjoying the potluck meal. Overall, it was a great day with lots of good company, but I definitely missed my family and the plentiful dessert table, and the subsequent napping after eating way too much dessert.

My pumpkin cheesecake was a hit

Family pie spread

So I've never had the desire to go Black Friday shopping. Mainly because anyone who knows me, knows I'm NOT a morning person. So waking up extremely early to beat crowds and find a parking spot is not my cup of tea. However, since Anchorage is a pretty small town of 300,000 I figured that if I was ever going to try Black Friday shopping, why not try it here? I slept in late till about 11am and then got ready to brave the crazy crowds at the mall. However, it felt like a normal day except that everything was 40-50% off!! Amazing, how did I not realize that this glorious shopping day existed sooner? I hit up Banana Republic, Gap, Eddie Bauer, and Nordstrom (essentially the only stores in the Anchorage mall) and never waited in a line longer than 3 people to check out! I couldn't believe the deals I was getting. I got some great new corduroys, a puffy vest, some sweaters, a nice midweight down jacket, and a fur scarf (faux for now). I really want to get a fur hat while I'm here, very authentic Alaskan, but I need to check out some local stores to figure out what I really like before I make that investment. I'd say my first Black Friday was a major success! Shameless selfies below..

Faux fur scarf

My mom sent me her old fur hat from
when she lived in London

I spent the rest of Thanksgiving weekend Christmas shopping downtown for some Alaskan gifts, hanging out with friends who also stayed in Anchorage for the holidays, and decorating for Christmas! I've never had a lot of storage for Christmas decorations, but now that I have a full garage I decided to make my house into a little winter wonderland.

Ever since I graduated college, its been a tradition for my brother Andrew and I to go pick out my Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. This year I didn't have my trusty companion so I had to opt for a smaller tree that I could easily transport myself. Luckily I have a big enough car now with my Subaru Forester, that I could easily fit my 5 foot tree into the back with the seats folded down. The nursery also wrapped the tree up in plastic and netting which was super helpful for transport. It was fun decorating the tree as I listened to my Pandora Christmas station. And luckily no ornaments were broken during the move!

Christmas tree packaging

Straight in the stand

All decorated, including my homemade tree skirt!

I continued the decorating process with some garland and lights on top of my bookshelf and around my stairs. I got lots of inspiration from my mom since she always decorates our mantel and entryway with lots of garland and fun things. I spent a few hours at Lowes, Michaels, and Pier 1 for supplies, where I opted mostly for the $2.99 for nine feet of plain garland instead of $20 for a nine foot pre-light plump garland. However, I will say wrapping lights around an 18 foot plain garland and then wrapping the garland light combo around the bannister is much harder than it looks... or at least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself. I had my Christmas tree up and decorated in the same amount of time it took me to get the garland on the stairs completed. Sometimes I wonder if I really am an engineer haha. 

Festive above the bookshelf

Thanks mom for all your old decorations!

I love glitter... and flowers... and flowers with glitter :)

More glitter flowers on the stairs

Christmas potpourri

Bows galore

Jingle bell candles

Love evergreen wreaths, they make the whole room smell great

Plaid Santa, welcome to Alaska

Finally got the bannister complete

Christmas living room put together

Mini tree in my bedroom

After a relaxing holiday weekend, came another glorious shopping event... Cyber Monday. This kind of shopping is my favorite cause you can do it from the comfort of your own home. I scored some great deals on Cyber Monday including some boots, a swimsuit for lap swimming, a humidifier, and a bunch of Christmas gifts. I may or may not have booked a conference room while I was eating lunch at work so I could do some Cyber Monday shopping. Cube life sucks sometime! And a lot of the deals ended in  Eastern time, which is 4 hours ahead of me.

I'm pretty pumped about all of my new boots. I didn't wear boots too often in Texas, besides my cowboy boots, but my new favorite pair are some fuzzy wedge Sorels! When you think of snow boots that have a good tread on the bottom to keep you on your feet in the snow / ice, you probably don't think of a wedge or an ankle boot. So props to Sorel for inventing such a wonder! Snow boots are usually bulky and take awhile to put on, but I can just slip these guys right on with no laces or zippers or intensive pant tucking. They are so cute and have a heel, and did I say awesome! And they are super functional and sturdy as long as there isn't more than a few inches of snow on the ground. I love them :)

Rocking the wedge Sorels

Love them :)

I also FINALLY found a pair of snow boots that are warm, fun, and fit. They have bright orange shoe laces and a very small herringbone print :) Even though it took several weeks to find the perfect pair, I'm quite pleased in my latest investment since I will be wearing them for more than half of the year!

New snow boots 

Merry Christmas to me

My mom helped me find another pair of boots that are warm, not bulky, and a little more stylish. They are cute enough to wear to work with tights or skinny jeans without having to change into other shoes from the ever growing closet of shoes under my desk! I haven't gotten a single pair of new heels or flats since I've moved here but my boot collection has definitely tripled. They are all well needed since I wear them everyday.

New brown boots

I still can't get over how pretty the snow is everywhere! Now that I have proper boots and footwear, I love the snow. I do not love the dark though.. the sun rose today at 9:58am and will set at 3:48pm. I set up a "happy" light at my desk at work, which is supposed to help you beat the winter blues and the effects of seasonal changes. I've only used it for a few days so far, but I think it's improving my mood and energy! Thank goodness there are only 12 more days till the shortest day of the year and then we start gaining back daylight.

Snow outside the office

The prettiest hybrid poinsettia at my desk at work

Happy light

I spent a good hour this past weekend trying to set up my fireplace to get fully into the Christmas spirit. Yes I had to "set it up" because its a gas fireplace. It looked so easy when the builder flipped the switch on the wall and the fire started. However, I knew I wouldn't use it right away and therefore I had them turn the gas off when I moved in this summer so that the pilot light wasn't running all the time. Of course that was months ago and I don't remember a thing. I pulled out the instruction manual to figure out how to turn everything back on so that I could simply flick the switch this winter. 

I took off the cover underneath the fire and figured out pretty quickly how to open the gas line. I vaguely remember the builder saying it would take a minute or two for the parts to heat up enough in the winter to start the pilot light. However, my manual said to try no more than 60 seconds and stop if you smell gas. I have an irrational fear when it comes to natural gas.. Like every time I start my gas grill, I close my eyes and say a quick prayer that my face is not going to get singed off in an explosion. This situation was no exception. I freaked out after 60 seconds when the ignitor was still not starting the pilot and walked away. I tried again a few minutes later and started to smell gas. So I waited for about 10 minutes before trying again. This time I sat further away and used one foot to push the pilot knob and the other foot to keep pushing the ignitor, obviously so my face wouldn't get burned off. It finally sparked and I panicked and backed away. I then figured out you have to hold it for a few seconds to make sure it stays lit. Once I finally had it up and running, it got nice and cozy and warm... 

Then my fire alarm went off!! I was so scared as the calming lady voice kept saying "fire" in between my fire alarm beeps. I immediately grabbed my fire extinguisher, turned off the switch to the fire and opened up my balcony door. There wasn't any visible fire in the living room so I went over to the kitchen and nothing either. I guess there must have been some plastic coating on the logs that maybe burned off during its first use. So I turned down the intensity of the flames to medium instead of high, and let it burn for the rest of the afternoon with no more problems. Phew! So now I have a wonderfully cozy working fireplace next to my tree :) 

Merry Christmas from my cozy living room!