Christmas in Juneau

picnic shelter on shore of Auke Bay

This Christmas was certainly not like any other - in the past, if we didn't spend Christmas Day at "home", we traveled to Detroit, Dallas or Louisville to spend the holiday with whatever family was available.  There was always some child to share the day with, but not this year.  While I certainly regret not being able to spend the day with family, we did skype/talk to everyone, and enjoyed a quiet morning.  On Christmas Eve day, we went to a local production of  "A Christmas Carol", which was amazingly good!  The theater was quite small, but a 2 p.m. Christmas Eve performance was sold out.  The production followed the popular movie, but was given the "Readers Digest" treatment (trimming where needed, but not affecting the story).  The actors, including the children, were very well-rehearsed and the show was completely entertaining.  Scrooge himself was so similar to George C. Scott that we had to look twice - which we did, because we were in the third row!  After the play, we returned home until church, and later that evening, we visited for a brief time with some people we had met who so graciously invited us to their house.  After some wine and a slice of homemade banana cream pie (chocolate cream for Bill), we went home and watched the Midnight Mass from Rome.  Christmas Eve was rainy, but Christmas Day dawned cloudy and dry so we decided to walk off that aforesaid pie.

view across to unnamed islands

We are lucky to live in the area surrounding the Auke Lake Recreation Area, which includes many picnic shelters, some with massive fireplaces and a paved trail that winds around the towering Sitka Spruce right along the ocean.  We walked to a place called Point Louisa, which is a spit of land in Favorite Channel.  I'm using the correct words for places since I hear them all the time but have no idea where or what they are, so I'm learning with you!  The weather, up to that point, was calm with just a break in the clouds.  As we walked to the (literal) end of Point Louisa, the wind on one side was very strong and biting, with white-capped waves.  On the other side of the Point, things were calm, with little wind and no need for caps or mittens as we walked.  I was wearing my

looking across Favorite Channel

Packer sweatshirt in anticipation of the game (which for us started at 4:15 p.m. - a great time to watch a football game!) and some others who were "out and about" mentioned it (some thought it was Oregon colors!).  We shared the scenery with photographers, dog-walkers and some others with children who we think were meeting for a Christmas Day family outing.  As we walked, we heard an Alaskan drummer (similar to American Indian drums) beating the drum and chanting.  The sound rose over the water and made for a very reflective moment  - secular Christmas is fun and we did miss the annual reading of gift tags (some of you know what I'm referring to!) and seeing Jonah and Alana open their gifts, and the making of dozens (and dozens) of cookies.  And we certainly look forward to the next time that we are all together (thank goodness for skype!) in person.  However, we were reminded that Christmas is a time to celebrate Jesus' birth - and God gave us here in Juneau a wonderfully scenic way to remember.

panoramic view towards Indian Point