25 December 2012 Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime

Journal

Days before Christmas, the preparations began. People volunteered to decorate the galley and make Christmas cookies. The cookies were decorated to look like the traditional things (trees, snowflakes, etc) and also like typical South Pole things (like Hercs aka C-130s, the planes that passengers fly in and out on).

The night before our Christmas celebration (which was on Monday the 24th), there was a cocktail party and gift exchange.

Cutting Board — This wasn't just any cutting board. This cutting board was made from the floor of the gymnasium in the old Dome station. It's also signed by our head chef - James Brown.

The morning of the 24th, the festivities began with the Race Around the World. The Race Around the World is a 2 mile long loop that starts at the geographic South Pole, goes through the Dark Sector (where the South Pole Telescope, ICL, and MAPO - the Martin A. Pomerantz building are located), around the station, and back to the geographic South Pole.

Race Around the World course map — The map for the Race Around the World. Vehicles (snow machines, chariots, steam-breathing dragons, etc) take the red route and runners/walkers take the green.

The reason it's called the Race Around the World is because the course takes runners through every line of longitude so we are literally running around the world!

Beginning of the race — And we're off! Everyone runs for the first couple seconds, at least. Photo courtesy of Blaise Kuotiong.

Me wearing my RATW outfit — Me, wearing an appropriate Race Around the World shirt from my school. Photo courtesy of Rob Young.

After the race, I used one of my 2 minute showers and headed to the galley for brunch. Normally, brunch is on Sundays but this week, everyone worked on Sunday the 23rd so that they could take off Monday and Tuesday (except the ARA drillers - we had a particularly frustrating hole that took longer than expected so we decided to work an extra day on Tuesday). At brunch, everyone got their Race Around the World water bottles!

RATW water bottle — Normally there's a t-shirt for the Race Around the World but this year we got water bottles. These are just as useful as t-shirts and no one looks at you funny if you use it every day.

Brunch is open from 10:30am to 1pm and so we had some free time until dinner. (During our free time, Darrell took me out to see the old IceCube stuff at the Berms. More about that in a different post.) Christmas dinner is held in 2 shifts and the IceCube/ARA people all signed up for the 2nd seating. Before dinner though, there are hors d'oeurves in the hallway outside the galley.

Hors d'Oeuvres — Some of the available hors d'oeuvres. We had eggnog, cocktail shrimp, scallions, and duck confit.

We ate and mingled for the half hour before dinner.

Mingling before Xmas dinner — Mingling before dinner. Ok - talking to Perry. It's alright to mingle with people you already know. Photo courtesy of Albrecht Karle.

During that time, I got my 1st Christmas present - a bracelet that Darrell made for me.

My bracelet — My Christmas bracelet. It was perfect - matched my dress and everything.

Then it was time for dinner. The galley tables had been rearranged and nicely set - we even had real candles on the tables!

The galley, looking really nice — The galley got all dressed up for Christmas dinner, too.

The IceCube/ARA people all sat together. It was nice seeing everyone all dressed up. We all look very different without our cold weather gear and hard hats.

The gang — The IceCube/ARA people. Left side of the table: Jim, Darrell, Thorston, Albrecht, and Felipe. Right side: James, Liz, Dave, Mike, and Rob. Photo courtesy Jeffrey Donenfield.

Dinner was served buffet-style. Our table was 3rd (out of 6). The food was really awesome.

Xmas Dinner — Christmas dinner, starting at the top and going clockwise: Mashed potatoes, carrots and parsnips, Beef Wellington, lobster, and a croissant. Served on the fancy plates, too.

After dinner, we were served dessert - truffles and a flour-less fudge cake. It was a great dinner. I enjoyed the food and the conversations and company. It was bittersweet though because this was my second-to-last scheduled night on station.

Oh! There was one more perk to Christmas dinner - the next morning for breakfast, we had sushi and lobster quesadillas made from the leftovers! It was a really nice surprise.

I'm glad I got to be here for Christmas - it was a nice way to spend one of the last days of my trip.

Details