Christmas for the Birds

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Matthew 6:26

After hearing this verse used in a sermon at church, it got me thinking about those sweet little birds (and our pet squirrel Elizabeth). After all, it was almost Christmas, and they should get a special something for being our feathered and furry friends... Sure, the Lord takes care of them. But maybe we could do something extra special for them in this happy Christmas season?

So one evening before Christmas, Quinn and I set to work. We gathered bird seed, and using a recipe I found here, we started making ornaments.

The recipe used corn syrup, and it made the mixture super sticky! Thankfully, it wasn't too difficult to press into our cookie cutters.

Now it was time to make the holes for hanging them!

Some colorful bendy straws made the perfect thing to make the holes. 
Now all we had to do was wait...

But we're not the type to just sit around, so we spent the rest of our evening making popcorn, cranberry, and peanut garlands. 

We were going to make some birds very, very happy!

The next morning dawned beautifully, with a cold wind blowing snow about in the meadows. With no snow or rain coming down, it was the perfect time to take a walk.

We gathered the family together and we were off down one of the forest trails near our home to find the perfect tree!

Laura followed behind us, skipping all the way:

Soon we left the main path and wandered out in the meadows and muskegs for a bit, searching around carefully.

Abigail and I each carried a basket packed with the tree trimmings Quinn and I had made the night before.

Finally, we found what we were looking for!
And adorable little hemlock tree, the perfect Christmas tree for the birds and little creatures of the meadow.

The birdseed ornaments we had made turned out wonderfully, and oh-so pretty to look at!

A twist of candy-stripped baker's twine to hang them and they were ready for the tree!



Now all that was left to do was to decorate the tree!

Everyone had a wonderful time trimming the little hemlock tree with presents for the birds, and the tree looked magical when we finished:

A very happy sight to be seen just off the trail.

Oh! But don't worry, we remembered the friends at our home too! We made something very extra special for them...

With some leftover birdseed and cranberries, we made them a yummy wreath as a Christmas present.
Our squirrel friend Elizabeth has inspected it and we think she approves!
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Don't forget your feathered and furry friends this cold season, I'm sure they would all like to wake up to a birdseed wreath hanging up in your garden.

An End to the Summer

Today marks the last night that we will be playing on the Princess Cruise ships this summer. We are excited to leave for our Fall tour (This coming Sunday evening! It's almost here!), but playing on the Princess Cruise ships has been absolutely wonderful!

A few key things we will be missing:

1.) The FOOD - Paul especially has loved filling a plate (or two...or three...) every night (and yes, sometimes at lunch too) before a show. We just wish Melissa had let us go up and try the ice cream and milkshakes, but sadly, dairy like that just isn't good for the voice before a show. 

2.) The stage crews - Wow! If we could talk a few of the people we've come to know this summer into traveling with us, we would never have to set up, take down, do sound or our own lighting ever again! It would be heaven... One of the best things about playing on the ships was being able to show up, practice a little bit, and step right on stage. They had everything done for us.

3.) The BIG fancy stages -  After working lots and lots of summers at the Mount Roberts Tramway (which we adore for different reasons), a big stage to really move around on was extra special and made us feel like rock stars (even when only eight people showed up for the show - YES, that really happened).

One thing we will NOT miss:

1.) The evil looks we got from security when we were late getting off the ship because they scheduled our show right before departure leaving us no time to get paid or pack up - One guy DID look like Hugh Jackman though, so that was sort of a consolation prize...

We thought we would show you a little bit of a look at the Coral Princess Cruise ship as we get on to play our last show. Hope you enjoy it!

An Evening of Music

   Not too long ago, we heard the sad news that our dear friends the Truitts were going to be moving away from Juneau. This called for a going-away party filled with music and yummy desserts (I mean...dinner). 

   Lots of our friends came over for the evening to wish the Truitts off on their new adventure, and the evening ended wonderfully with home-made raspberry pie (made by Quinn and I from our very heavy raspberry bushes). 

Now, we need to clear something up with you. 

Very often in our travels (and sometimes even here in Juneau), people will come up to us after a show and they seem to think all we do in our free time is sit in front of our fireplace on cold winter evenings and play music happily together. 

And that's sort of true...

Yes, there are lots of cold winter evenings.

Yes, there is a lot music played in front of the fireplace.

But no. We are practicing. 

We very seldom just get together and play for fun.

(though yes, practice is a lot of fun sometimes)

Getting together with friends and just playing music seldom happens outside of Folk Fest week here in our house, so this evening spent with four guitars, two fiddles, a banjo, a bass and a piano was absolutely wonderful.

The night turned into a worship service/talent show, and we filmed parts of it to capture the moments we shared with everyone. 

We hope you like this little look into a very special evening:

"For where two or three gather in my name,

 there am I with them."

Matthew 18:20

A Day Spent Out in the Boat

Juneau has really been blessed with warm weather this summer. Last week it got up to 85 degrees! 

And in our book, that's water-skiing weather!

And that's just what we did:

I know what you're thinking. 

You're thinking, "Emily, I don't see you in any of these pictures!" 

Yep, you're right. That's because I was in the boat, taking pictures and video, with NO bathing suit on. Unlike this new family I have married into, I'm not completely crazy. 

That water is COLD.

To prove my point, here's the face Abigail made when she put on the soaking wet and very cold life jacket before climbing out of the boat. 

That's not a happy face.







Here's Paul getting out of the water, and boy is he happy to do so!

Because of the warm weather, everyone dried off pretty quick in the boat, so they didn't have long to shiver once they got out.




Later that evening, we performed on a Princess Cruise ship. I think the audience was a bit mystified when we told them we had gone water-skiing earlier that day...

Like me, they must have known how cold the water was!


Here's Abigail waiting for us to swing back around with the boat and get her after a fall:

Notice how she's up on the surf board? Yep, it was cold, but I think Abby, Quinn, and Paul would say that the water temperature was worth the fun!

I made a short little video to capture the chilling fun. You'll want to see Quinn and Abby jumping off the boat dock, and Paul's (wearing a wet suite, the cheater) water skiing skill!

Only Fools Run at Midnight

Every summer in Juneau, locals stay up extra extra late one night to participate in what is known as 'Only Fools Run at Midnight.' The race (which is broken up into really two races of either a 1 mile or a 5k) is a fundraiser put together by an organization called SAIL (Southeast Alaska Independent Living), which strives to help elders and people with disabilities live a more independent lifestyle. 



This last weekend Quinn, Abigail and I participated! But I haven't even told you the best part, yet...everyone who runs the race dresses up!

Yes indeed! All the participants of the race dress up crazy and prizes are given to the best costumes. 

Our idea came from my sister Bethany and I thinking about how we could include Abby's mermaid tail (because it's a real show-stopper!). In the end we decided to stick with something Alaskan - a mermaid who didn't want her fish friends getting eaten (with Quinn and I being Alaskan fisherman against farmed fisheries). 

Here we are in all our fishy-glory!

I wore Paul's neon yellow water-proof suit that he uses when going out in the boat. Quinn wore his fishing coat and hat, and of course lovely Abigail was our beautiful mermaid!

Everyone who saw us loved our idea, and no one could help but notice Abby!

Some of my family also participated in the fun! My mother dressed in red and wore a silly crab hat. She hung a sign around her neck that read "Kiss the crabby" and handed out chocolate kisses to everyone! 

When I was little, she kept a wind-up toy crab in a kitchen cabinet and when I (or another one of my siblings) was grumpy, she would pull it out and wind it up and say "Kiss the crabby!" 

I don't think she ever gave me chocolate for being crabby though...haha!

My brother Wesley, my sister Valerie, and their friend Nancy were with us as well! My mom came up with their idea: Alaskan versions of Adam and Eve (wrapped up in giant leaves of skunk cabbage - so named for the smell of skunk the plants have) with Valerie as a snake! 

Oh no Quinn! 

Don't do it!

I'm sorry to say that none of us won anything in the costume contest, but we all had a lot of fun!

Abigail had the best time out of all of us though, she didn't even have to run the race! 

Quinn and I pulled her the whole way on Melissa's garden cart (which we had made pretty with cardboard waves and a fuzzy blue blanket). And no, we did not do the 5k, we only pulled her a mile. 

Everyone had a wonderful time, though we were all really tired at church the next morning...

Tasha Tudor Day

We have started a new tradition in our household: 

Tasha Tudor Day! 

Tasha Tudor is a world renowned American children's book author and illustrator. Many of her books can be found on Melissa's book shelves, and Abigail, Quinn and Laura have fond memories of reading them when they were young. 

She is very much Melissa's hero (and mine too, since Melissa introduced me to her work), residing in an old new England farm house with goats, chickens, and many adorable corgis. She believed in hard work, imagination, and the beauty and joy that could be found in making things with your own two hands.

Because of our love for Tasha Tudor, we decided to celebrate a day in her honor! We would dress and go about our lives in an old fashioned way. 

And let me tell you...we had so much fun!

The day dawned bright and sunny, and us girls put on our favorite old-fashioned dresses. 

Mine is a vintage German dirndl dress that fits me to a T! This was my first time wearing it, and I couldn't have picked a better occasion. 

I started out my morning by raiding Melissa's table cloth stash..

Quinn, being the helpful husband, had already hung up a long clothes line for me to hang the tablecloths on.  He had helped me plan a special picnic for everyone that day, and it required the perfect setting!

Tablecloths are one of Melissa's favorite things (right up there with dishes, ovens, chocolate and coffee), so we had plenty of beautiful floral printed cloths to hang up.

They would create the perfect backdrop for our picnic!

Abigail came out to help us then. She wore a lovely dress Quinn had gotten her as a Christmas present several years before. Paired with a pretty white lace apron, she looked simply stunning!

Together we hung paper garlands in the blossoming apple trees. I had sewn them all up the night before so we would have them ready. 

Melissa came out then (wearing a dress patterned all in spring flowers), and together we grabbed our trugs and flower clippers and headed down to the flats to find flowers. 

The flats were a-glow with green sea grasses, shimmering in the sun. The mountains looked wild and far-off as we skipped around with bare feet. 

Buttercups, shooting stars, lupin, and sweet pea flowers covered the ground. 

The beauty that surrounded us was amazing, we could have spent our whole day down there!

We filled our baskets to the brims with flowers. 

It was hard to leave the beauty of the flats, but the flowers needed to be put in water and we needed to start on making lunch for the picnic!

We may have stopped on the way back up to the house to take a ride on the swing though...

Once we were back up at the house, we laid down a quilt under the apple blossoms and started cleaning the flowers. 

I had extra cones from my May Day gifts, so we filled them with flowers and hung them in the apple trees. We even had enough for two vases as well!

I used a bundle of extra sweet pea blossoms to make Abigail a flower crown.

Now she looked even more fairy like with that flowing golden hair of hers!

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Melissa had started the soup for our picnic lunch. Abby and I looked through her Tasha Tudor cookbook and found a bread recipe to try.

The recipe was for a large batch, making four loaves of white bread all together! 

But I have a large family, so we decided to make the full recipe and share what we had left over.

Abigail and I took turns kneading the bread (which is always the funnest part). 

It came out of the oven looking absolutely beautiful! And let me tell you, we ate every last bit of it with honey and jam and butter (all except for the loaf we gave to my family of course). 

Our picnic was the prettiest picnic I've ever had the pleasure to be a part of, and I think everyone else would agree with me.

The apple tree blossoms smelled so sweet as we sat underneath them. 

The tablecloths blew in the breeze...

And the picnic food was beyond yummy!

We all sat together on the quilt we had brought out. We ate, talked, and basked in the warm sunshine.

Melissa remarked, as we stretched out on the quilt after all the food had been eaten and put away, "Yes, I think Tasha Tudor would have been proud."

I think she would have been, too.