2010: In Summary

Dear Friends and Family,

2010 in Alaska has been a good one. Since we've lived in Alaska over a year now, we're officially Alaska residents. This means in 2011, we can go dip-netting for salmon (with a household limit of 55 fish!) and receive the Permanent Fund Dividend (money from the oil companies... around $1200 for each of us). We've survived a winter here, so we can be referred to as "sourdoughs" and we actually loved it. The sky is always so beautiful in the winter and all the snow make the holidays so festive. March and April can get hard when Spring has hit "outside" (the term Alaskans use for the lower 48) and it's still snowing here. But, as Alaskans say: "The winters are hard, but the summers are worth it." We spent our summer camping, hiking, and exploring the awesome bike trails. In the evenings, we would take rides sometimes around town. Celia loves the bike trailer. Tom's also been bike commuting to work. He plans to commute all winter, but his studded bike tires have been on backorder for about a month now, so the biking has been put on hold until those arrive. Moose are a part of life up here. In the winter, we get them in our driveway frequently and you can see them around town. In the summer, it's less frequent, but then the bears are out (although we've only seen one). All of this is to say, I don't think we'll be leaving Alaska anytime soon.

We did take some trips outside to go to some weddings and attend a reunion with Marel's family on the coast. We also had visits from both families. Marel's family came up in March and we traveled around and saw some beautiful sites. Tom's whole family came up for a visit in the summer and we saw some glaciers.

In other news, Marel spent most of the year pregnant and miserable until October 5 when Sabrina Carys was born (2 weeks early, but not soon enough). It was a labor that lasted only an hour and twenty minutes and Sabrina came out before Marel could get any meds (and no, she won't let you forget that she had that baby naturally). Sabrina was born at 9:50 PM and weighed 7 pounds 10 ounces and was 20.75" long. Other than a miserable month-long colic stage, she really is a perfect angel. She sleeps about 13 hours every night and goes about 10 hours of that without eating. She never cries and she's very cute. Celia loves her. When Celia hears Sabrina wake up in the morning, she says: "There's my baby!"

Celia is still the joy of the house. She's smart, funny, and doesn't have a mean bone in her body. She's always giving her toys to other kids to keep the peace and when she thinks Sabrina's crying because of something she did, Celia needs more consoling than Sabrina. She's still pretty funny.

Marel is glad to not be pregnant, is trying to figure out how to get anything done with two (fabulous) kids, and started a job in July as a research consultant for a behavioral economics firm. She works during nap time and loves it.

Tom is still loving his job He just started a new schedule where he works until 4:30 for nine days and then has every-other Monday off.

So... in summary: we're healthy, happy, and loving life. We hope the same is true for you. Merry Christmas!

Love, Marel, Tom, Celia, and Sabrina Stock.