Merry Christmas!

On purpose I say "Merry Christmas" and not "Happy Holiday."  The holiday is all about Christmas - Christ coming into the world.  Advertisers prefer to say "Happy Holiday" because they don't want to offend anyone.  In this case I am all for offending people!  I celebrate the coming of God into the world as a human baby.  He came to live to show us the Father.  He came to die so that we might see the Father.  I am thankful for Jesus and proudly say, "Merry Christmas!"

Merry Christmas!

This morning it was -14 in Wayland and -8 here.  Elva and I had a little laugh!  Our laugh was short-lived.  The temps have been falling steadily all day.  Now it is -18.  But there is no wind.  The weather reports we listen to in the mornings give the temperatures for one year ago.  We have been fortunate this year - most days the temps a year ago are 10 to 20 degrees colder than this year.  It has been a mild December for Fairbanks.

We saw first hand how they do snow removal here.  There are too many snows to remove it for each storm.  The major roads they try to keep the snow off from each snow.  All the secondary roads the snow just builds up.  It might be 5 or 6 inches of packed snow on the road.  It packs and is not very slick.  We had ice in mid November and it is very slick, but the snow pack is not very slick.  A couple times per winter they remove snow - down to an inch or so.  First a grader goes over the road several times, removing a couple inches each pass.  This is piled in rows down the middle of the street.




Then a big snow blower blows it into a truck.  The big dump trucks were filled in just a couple minutes.

 The core of the downtown has Christmas lights now.  The snow on posts, trees, fences, and lawns is still pretty.

This is an example of town light.  Tree is just normal tree lit by the street lights.

Trees in downtown park with lights.

Lights behind icicles.

How many of you have gone to fireworks shows in snow pants, parkas, heavy gloves, and snow boots?  It seemed rather different, but it was not too hot - that is for sure.  This is one way they celebrate the winter solstice.  It was mild for here, about 15 degrees above.  It could have easily been 50 degrees colder!  No fireworks here for the Fourth of July, it is not dark enough.  These were by the city.  New Years Eve there will be more done by the college.  The fire works were along the river, about three blocks from our apartment.

There was a very light breeze.  This shows the smoke from the previous seven or eight shots.

We like this one best - not the star of Bethlehem - but the star of Fairbanks!

Here is another part of the solstice celebration.  I'm not sure which reindeer this is, but from the nose it must not be Rudolph.

I write this Christmas Eve here in Fairbanks.  We plan to go to the Christmas Eve service at church.  It is at 11:00.  Elva will be singing in the choir and I will be usher.  This is a new place for us, we don't know how the service will go.  But it will be wonderful.  We will gather with others celebrating the coming of our Savior into the world.

Merry Christmas!  May your Christmas and your life be filled with the blessings brought from heaven above to humankind by the Man who was born in the manger in Bethlehem many years ago.

Larry and Elva