Greetings Gang,

 
And now here is the rest of the story…

Not only was the craft bazaar shopping awesome, but the day after Thanksgiving sales were 
the best.  I lived for them.  I would get up at 4:30am just in time to get dressed and 
head out to Fred Meyers.  It opened at 5:00am!!!  They had free donut holes, coffee, and 
juice.  What more did you need to start off a fun day of shopping?  It was shopping 
madness, all of these women all shapes and sizes seizing their shopping carts and 
navigating the isles according to the sales adds and the lists in their hands.  My 
favorite part was the 50% off of socks, calendars, and board games.  It was my Anchorage 
shopping tradition.  To the point that I had a little chat with Jakey while he was in the 
womb, pleading him to stay in at least until the shopping was over.  And by golly did he 
wait.

In the same weekend Anchorage put on it’s production of “The Nutcracker Ballet”.  I went 
twice while I was there.  The first time was in 1999 when I was pregnant with Laney.  My 
friend Crystal and I went.  It was so magical.  The ballet was put on at the Anchorage 
Performing Arts Theatre by the New York Ballet Company.  It had several levels of seating 
and an actual live orchestra playing beneath the stage in a pit.  The music was peaceful 
and happy.  The ballet dancers had elegant, ornate, costumes.  It was visions of sugar 
plums and fairies right before your very eyes.  During one of the songs, Laney starting 
moving vigorously as if she too, were doing a ballet.  Crystal and I watched in amazement 
as Laney kicked and turned during the whole song.  I guess she’s loved music from the 
beginning.  After the show we browsed the trees of ornaments and each selected a nutcracker
 ornament to take home with us.  So every year as I put up my tree, when I come to the 
Nutcracker ornament, I think back to the first time Laney starting ballet.  I hope that 
my children love the Nutcracker as much as I do.
 
Thanksgiving is next week and we are planning a big feast.  I’m not real sure what kind of 
dishes we will have, but I’m sure it will be tasty.  Some of our folks who fly to Germany 
are going to bring some pies to dinner.  That should be tasty.  And a couple of my good 
friends sent me some Miracle Whip so I can have my cold turkey sandwich with cranberry 
sauce.  We will begin decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and bust out 
the Christmas music and movies.  They might me able to take our families away from us 
during the holidays, but they can’t take our holidays away from us.  Let the Seasons 
Greetings begin.  

Thanks again for all of your letters, emails, and packages.  They really help the time 
pass.  

Love Always,

Dandy can’t wait to listen to a Rosie O’Donnell Christmas CD Aaron