Garth is working a flex-schedule and every other Friday he has off. We have really enjoyed spending this day together and last Friday, November 30th, we visited North Pole, Alaska. North Pole is just a quick 20 minute drive South of Fairbanks. We noticed the ice sculptures at the bank and at Wendy's as we arrived in town.

This is a 45-foot-tall fiberglass Santa. He may be more frightening to the little ones than sitting on his lap inside Santa's house.

Here are some other ice sculptures we found. There is an ice-carving festival next weekend, and people are getting started on their pieces. In down-town Fairbanks we saw a team starting on a sculture in front of a dental office. Any guesses on what that might be a sculture of?

The Santa Claus House is located on St. Nicholas Drive. Here are some of the displays around and on the building. It is a bright, cheerful place!

Inside Santa's House were these beautiful, life size Santa figures on display. There are all kinds of Christmas ornaments and decorations for sale. There are many locally made crafts and I really loved the carved wooden bowls. During the tourist season in the summer, the Santa Claus

House is a popular place for visitors. This is a family-owned business and has been in operation 55 years. They estimate 250,000 visitors come through every year.

There were lots of little kids waiting in line to sit on Santa's lap, and Mrs. Clause was there, too. Quite festive!

http://santaclaushouse.com/

When Garth & I left the house on Friday, the temperature in our car read 58 degrees (the benefit of a heated garage). By the time we got to the base and parked at the gym, the temperature was -1. It has been quite cold, and this week the highs will be -5 or -8 a couple of days.

Garth will be in Sacramento, CA this week attending a course on malpractice cases. He has been looking forward to going "outside" as we call it here in Alaska.