Lights aren't on...But tree will go up.

Saturday morning we woke up to no power. It ended up being 4 hours before we got it back....There was also a day in the middle of the week where the same thing happened. We woke up to NO power. It didn't come back on till 11am. Saturday morning however, it was VERY COLD, all the little kids were coming to "get warm" in our bed. It brought back memories of me as a kid, waking up Saturday mornings and climbing into bed with mom and dad. We would talk, joke around, and usually some tickling would happen. Dad would get sick of us kids stealing his blankets, or pillow, or probably his bed and he would leave us. Sometimes he would go and turn on morning cartoons and prepare breakfast. It was some very cherished moments with my mom in fact. Back to OUR Saturday....When these little people were in my bed they would lay on me, and beg for more covers. I was told when we first got here to Alaska that we needed to make sure we had things to survive the power outages that would happen. We were told that sometimes it would last for days. So I was getting pretty nervous when the kids were really cold. We decided to get kids up and dressed in warm clothes and socks, and jackets before it got to cold. When they were all dressed the power came on, around 11am. We did some much needed errands, and got home around 5 or so. I started wrapping the branches of our tree with the lights as I was putting it up. And the lights started to flicker a few times...then THEY WERE OUT!!! The kids were screaming and freaking out. We were trying to find a working flashlight, a working lighter...it was a struggle. We were frustrated. When everyone calmed down, we decided to go to Fred Meyer to get lantern wicks....(I thinks that's what they called). When we got back, the lights were still off, Jake got the lantern lit, then he read that we shouldn't light it in the house due to Carbon Monoxide. So we cracked the sliding door, and I went on with the lights on the tree. Kids went to bed in the dark, and Jake and I went to bed to finish the tree after church. As we were dosing off in the cool house the lights came on, it was around 11pm... Sunday we decided to come home from church early to decorate our tree as a family. We had waited this long because we donated our tree to our Ward Christmas Party. Jake was on call at 7pm and we didn't want to be given a broken promise to our kids. So we came home after Sacrament meeting, and let the kids decorate our tree, As the kids decorated, Theron undecorated. I figured out that I didn't have enough lights, and the lights that I had done in the dark the night before, weren't working. And I didn't have enough to get to the top. LOL....the last few days the few of our Shatter proof ornaments have been broken, and I've been collecting the ones that Theron keeps taking off. The candy canes that matched our ornaments gotten eaten with in 24 hours of having our tree up. It is a memorable Christmas Tree for sure, half lit, no ornaments, and definitely not as many gifts. The most important part of this Christmas away from home, is that we make it more about our Savior, not about our DUMB empty tree, or the lack of gifts under it, or the lack of family we have around us. This is a time to become closer as a family, and a time to focus on our Savior....MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!