The biggest party of the year is in downtown Anchorage on New Years Eve. Approximately 7,000 – 10,000 people gather around Town Square on December 31st to ring in the New Year and enjoy the festivities (kicking off at 5:00 PM). Opportunities for all ages entertainment include live music from I Love Robots and Big Fat Buddha, beats by DJ GRE, light shows, two beer gardens hosted by Humpy’s Bar and the Avenue Bar featuring celebratory libations for the 21 and over crowd, classic carnival games and hot cocoa for the kiddos, food trucks, and FIREWORKS! It’s a fantastically fun (and FREE!) way to spend your New Year’s Eve.

These are my can’t miss moments:

1. More than 1,200 pounds of fireworks detonating directly overhead!  Fireworks are launched in front of the Whale Wall on E Street, which means that if you’re partying in Town Square or any of the surrounding buildings you’ll have a front row seat for a spectacular show (I’ve been told it’s going to be bigger, brighter, and better than ever before!). The fireworks start at 8:00 PM.
2. A menagerie… with a MINI HORSE!

Lambs, pigs, and ducks – oh my! The goats and a calf are pretty darn cute too. Swing by 5th Ave between E & F Street until 7pm for a dose of sweet baby animal love.

3. Spotting a fictional English spy

Rumor has it that a James Bond look-a-like of the Daniel Craig variety will be pre-partying at Town Square before he heads over to the License to Thrill party at the Sheraton (think he’ll make a Spectre of himself?). Faux celebrity spotting is always fun and seriously, can you tell the difference? Might as well snag a selfie with 007 (if you can find him, that is!)

4. FIRE! 

Not just fireworks: fire dancing, fire throwing, and fire juggling. Nothing lights up the night like a bit of flame being thrown about! Bask in the glow while you marvel at the artistry – with a dash of daredevilry – on display.

I hope you enjoy the party! Cheers to a happy New Year, and see you all in 2016!

For more information about the New Year’s Eve Celebration, visit www.AnchorageDowntown.Org. And if you’re still looking for the perfect way to spend New Year’s Eve, Alaska Dispatch pulled together a roundup of events happening around town. Cheers!

Gretchen Fauske blogs at GretchenLovesAnchorage and volunteers for the Anchorage Downtown Partnership. She spent her childhood NYEs competing with her brother to see who could stand barefoot in the snow the longest while holding a sparkler.

The post Guest City Notebook: Free Anchorage NYE moments not to miss appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

I’ve got the holiday spirit. Bad. And it’s all thanks to our 3-year-old son.  Seeing his little face light up at every holiday detail fills me with warmth and joy. We turned on the car radio the other morning as little Michael Jackson was belting out “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” Jack was giddy and screamed, “We sing this at preschool! I know this song!”

The magic is real and I want to be a part of it.

Here are some ways we’ve been keeping the holiday spirit alive in our Anchorage household. Share yours in the comments!

1. Portable North Pole

A friend told me about Portable North Pole, a free online program where you enter a few generic bits of information about your child, what you’d like him to work on this year (we went with “brush teeth every night”) and a photo. In a few minutes you have a personalized video message from Santa.

Our son Jack was stunned when he watched it. He made us replay it four times. Let the Christmas joy begin.

2. Get into the kitchen

Our preschooler loves to help out in the kitchen. At Thanksgiving he helped me make pumpkin pie and it was a kitchen bonding experience. He measured the flour, cracked the eggs and turned on the mixer.

Last week we made perfect potato latkes and Jack was a terrific sous chef.

Whether it’s Christmas cookies or candy cane bark, there’s plenty of ways to get your kids culinarily involved.

3. Donate to a local shelter

Each year Bean’s Cafe, a local homeless shelter, turns to the community to help out with Beanie Boxes, which are wrapped shoeboxes filled with necessities such as deodorant, toothbrushes and socks. Have your child help you fill up a shoebox with goodies, pick out the wrapping paper and ribbon and drop it off.

This year we collected items for AWAIC, the local women’s shelter. I made a list based on what they asked for and included little clip art pictures of each item to make it visual. Jack and I went to the store and he selected three items from the list to donate.

4. Felt Christmas Tree

This is a project I put together two years ago, but it’s still fun to play with. Buy a couple of yards of green felt and cut out a tree shape. On several different colors of felt draw some simple shapes and have your child cut them out to create ornaments. Pin the tree to the wall and let him decorate his tree to his heart’s content.

Click here for a more detailed tutorial.

5. Go to a holiday movie

Up till now we’ve avoided taking our son to a movie theater. I remember being a non-parent and cursing the world whenever a screaming kid was seated at our movie.

Thankfully there are kid-friendly options. We recently took Jack to Williwaw where they were showing a kid-themed Christmas film as a fundraiser for Special Olympics. It was Jack’s first movie theater experience and a positive one. The manager passed out free popcorn and families roasted marshmallows over a s’mores kit.

Williwaw has several more movie nights planned. There are two show times so you don’t have to worry about staying out past bedtime. Plus it saves you a night of having to cook dinner! Click here for show times.

If you can’t make it to Williwaw, there’s always the peanut gallery at Bear Tooth Theaterpub. Tickets are cheap and if you catch an early show you don’t have to feel bad about making noise in the balcony area.

6. Make snowflakes

Many tiny tots are hard at work on their fine motor skills. Ours loves cutting out paper. Work on making paper snowflakes together. Jack was happy with just cutting up pieces of paper and taping them to the window. We’ve got sort of an abstract impressionism vibe going on.

Here’s a simplified way to make paper snowflakes that is perfect for new scissor users.

7. Visit the Gingerbread Village

Every year the Hotel Captain Cook sets up an elaborate gingerbread house village in their lobby. Check out their live gingerbread web cam to catch a glimpse.

Afterwards, head the the store for some graham crackers, powdered sugar, gumdrops and Necco wafers and build your own.

8. Write holiday cards

I’m a big supporter of snail mail. Have your child help you with your holiday cards by including their scribbles and drawings. Jack actually drew a Christmas tree for his preschool teacher, so that definitely was included.

9. Look at the lights

Kids tend to love sparkly things that light up. Thankfully it’s dark most of the time here right now so it’s easy to find trees and houses adorned with twinkly lights. Start off at Town Square Park, which has some of the most stunning blue lighted trees.

If it’s not too cold, take a stroll through the Alaska Zoo at their evening Zoo Lights event. All the pathways are illuminated by animal-shaped light fixtures, some of which are animated. If you’re lucky you might spot a real, non-napping animal.

This week, Jack rushed inside after school to tell me his wish finally came true: the shooting star was on. A house over on Elmore and Huffman has a tall pole that lights up to the rhythm of holiday music that you tune to your car radio. Jack’s been waiting for it all year; and it’s free!

10. Have Santa mail a letter

Ok, this one is a little manipulative, but I had to give it a try. We have started a tradition in our family that in order for Santa to deliver toys to us, we have to give toys away to someone else who needs them. Instead of boring old parents telling their children to give away their toys, why not have Santa ask?

Santa mailed Jack a letter explaining that sometimes the elves fix up old toys in the workshop to give to other kids who don’t have many things. It worked like a charm. Be sure to put the correct return address.

The post Guest post: 10 ways to get into the holiday spirit with kids appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

Here’s an interview about by Mike Dunham in the Alaska Dispatch News.

Here’s a video about it:

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/113547198]

For more holiday delights, go here.

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Look here is a fat-tire biker.

And some goof-balls.

And big ol’ sky and those mountains. Man.

Ombre ice, so Pinterest.

Look, somebody decorated a tree along the trail. See, now I feel merry!

(It’s just after the mosaic bench when you’re headed toward Earthquake Park from Westchester, just in case you’re thinking about a stroll.)

The post 21 #SoAnchorage Holiday Delights: #9, in praise of going for a walk when it’s light appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

Anyway, this is what coffee nerd forest (aka the cupping room at Kaladi Brothers Coffee on Brayton) looks like. Look at all those fancy brewers:

I went to this magical room last week to taste two holiday-time brews, Holiday Blend and Winter Roast. Here is Jared Mockli, the director of education at Kaladi, telling me about the origins of the beans as he brews some coffee.

Holiday Blend beans come from Papua New Guinea. Winter Roast comes from Ethiopia, the Yirgacheffe region, a small microclimate called Konga where a co-op of farmers supply the beans. It’s kind of a trip to think how far the coffee travels to get to your cup.

Anyway, Jared weighed the beans, ground them, and then brewed the coffee in a glorified cone filter called a Clever Coffee Dripper. I love stuff like that. Here’s how it works (Jared gets a little cut off at the end there, but you get the idea):

[wpvideo ncZGKu5T]

Then we got to taste it. Holiday Blend has lots of subtle flavors of seasonal things, like vanilla and nuts and milk chocolate. It would be right at home with a piece of pumpkin pie. I was partial to the Winter Roast. It’s an extra special coffee that can only be purchased inside the largest holiday gift boxes.

I’ll take a coffee nerd aside here to say I’m a big fan of Ethiopian coffee. It has a sweet, fruity taste, and is really smooth. It doesn’t taste like any coffee you are used to. The reason I started drinking it was partially a matter of practicality. Ethiopian coffee has a really pronounced flavor and smell. It’s floral and some of it tastes almost like tea. Sara drinks decaf and I started buying Kaladi’s Ethiopian beans, so that when I blearily ground ours in the morning, I could smell them and tell the difference. 

When Jared tasted the Winter Roast, he said it had “fruitiness,” “black tea qualities,” a “strawberry lemonade” flavor, “lavender,” and “floral aromatics.” Dave tasted his and said “blueberry waffles.”

Here’s what’s weird: When I tasted it, I discovered they were both totally right.

For more holiday delights, go here.

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We will be showing “Bear Me Witness” by Thomas Stroppel plus a selection of family friendly shorts from AIFF. The audience will also be treated to the kick-off of another art series — “Frisson,” a light show from the top of the JL Tower choreographed to music. From the Loussac parking lot, the audience will be able to watch the drive-in movie as well as see the tower light show. The audio for both will be played over KONR 106.1

I’m a giant fan of the JL Tower with the lights on top, which I can see from my house, and I could not be more curious about the art series light show. That alone seems worth the trip.

For more delights, click here.

The post 21 #SoAnchorage Holiday Delights: #5, A Drive-in Movie appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

And it smells great. Anyway, mistletoe grows on oak trees. It stays green in the winter when the tree goes bare, a symbol life in the dark, cold, short days.  AND it increases the likelihood of kissing. I say that’s a win all around.

For more delights, click here.

The post 21 #SoAnchorage Holiday Delights: #4, kiss somebody appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

 There is no better place to get such a cheerful, delicious, real-ice cream shake than everybody’s favorite Fairview church of fried chicken, Lucky Wishbone. You don’t even have to go in. You can go through the drive-thru in your minivan wearing the fleece pants you slept in the night before (not that I have done this…okay, I have totally done this). And if you want to get some fries, I’m not going to judge. The only thing is you have to bring a co-pilot, because the restaurant window is on the passenger side. The best part about the Wishbone is that, unlike many places, it has some sanity when it comes to portion size. The small milkshake is a very manageable 12 ounces, so you don’t have to feel too guilty about the calories. Also: For grown-ups, I endorse pouring a little rum in when you get back home.

The post 21 #SoAnchorage Holiday Delights: #3, the nog milkshake appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

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Click here to read about holiday treat number one.

The post 21 #SoAnchorage Holiday Delights: #2 is this ah-mazing radio light display appeared first on Julia O'Malley.

Here is #1: Mystery Bike Santa

I don’t know anything about this guy in the Santa suit (pictured here with my son Leo and his bff Alice Hopkins) except I have seen him riding his bike around downtown and Midtown for years. He looks a little like Santa in all seasons, (he wears shorts in the summer) but this time of year, with the ever-present costume and the green mittens, it really works for him. Who knows his story (Do you? Write me.), but when I’m sitting at a light in Fairview and a light snow is falling and he rides across the street, it makes me love this town just that much more.

For more delights click here.

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