It was great being home in Fairbanks for Christmas. I hadn't seen Jen and Steven for almost three months, so it was good to be with them as a happy family again. The weather cooperated beautifully, and it didn't get any cooler than -45 degrees at night. Most days the thermometer hovered around 0 degrees, so we all got out for a daily walk on the trail system behind our house. I also went for my daily ski, of course, and Steven came with me to keep in shape for his ski team at West Valley where he now attends high school. He took me once to Birch Hill where he and his team do most of their practicing after school and on weekends.

Steven and I also did a lot of wood chopping to add to the dwindling supply of birch and aspen which they use as a back-up heat source, along with the Monitor stove. It was a good way for us to do things together and to be outdoors in the nice weather. I found I especially liked to use the Swede saw to cut our wood because it took longer and kept me out in the fresh air more. There is also something lulling about the back and forth motion of cutting wood with a Swede saw, and I like it.

We did some visiting with friends, especially around Christmas and New Year's, and it was good to see them all again.

One final thing is that Steven gave me the grand tour of his new computer set-up, and said he'd be E-mailing me as soon as we were on-line with the Internet.

It was a wonderful Christmas, and, because of the circumstances, will be a memorable one.

Frank Keim