Yep, it's cold...

but nothing like Fairbanks. There, it's not cold unless it's -50. Have I mentioned we are seriously glad we don't live there? Still, December was COLD by Anchorage standards. Here, the temperatures struggled to reach zero most days. It became pretty normal to leave the house in the negatives. It was -12 on the thermometer during the day more than a couple times. One day, as we were leaving, Dan and I looked at each other and at the same time said, "It's so warm today!" We looked and it was +12, which really does start to feel warm after weeks of such low temps.

We got a huge warm up at the beginning of January, with temperatures above freezing! It felt like summer. We ditched the coats. I even wore cotton. The snow melted a bit. Not completely, of course, there's way too much of it on the ground for that, but enough to make everything nice and icy. Now, we're back to more normal numbers... teens, single digits, but not too much below zero.

Since December was just plain cold, we've been doing lots of indoor activities. Things like dance class and indoor soccer, so Oakley can run around and use up some of that two-year old energy. Then there are the indoor playgrounds and bounce houses. One of my favorite is the "Arctic Oasis". It's basically an indoor playground surrounded by workout equipment and weight machines, so you can watch your kid play while you work out. Genius. Throw in the fact that they are constantly cleaning it, and it's free, and you just can't beat it.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the neighbor kids are ice skating on our street. They are the nicest kids. They're always polite and well-behaved, and play with Oakley any time we're outside, which she just loves because they're SO big.