On December third, the Fire Department had it's annual Christmas party and awards banquet. There was plenty of good food, good company, and even Santa Claus. Patty and I traveled to the party on snowmachines where it was held in Kotzebue's one hotel.
There were numerous awards handed out including a number for bravery. Patty and I got 2 year service awards and awards for support.
Kathy who is a Physicians assistant who works in the CHAP program. We were awaiting the weather to clear at the Bearing Air terminal so we could fly to a village. All flights ended up being canceled.
Patty and I ventured out on our snowmachines the Sunday of December 18th. There was only a couple of hours of daylight and after a 15 minute run patty managed to bury her machine in 4 feet of powder. It took us all of our energy and about 20 minutes to get it out after which we called it a day.
Christmas eve Patty and I went to mass. One half hour before mass we sang Christmas Carols-some in Inupaq. The church is a simple structure with '70 era paneling on the walls and pews hand made from thin plywood and painted brown. The windows were hand painted to look like stained glass with some of the panes showing local scenes.
The altar and manger had distinctive local flavor as the people were all dressed in furs and the animals consisted of caribou, moose, and a lone seal. There was a simple band put together just for the occasion who doubled as the choir. There were also a group of adults from the school who provided the most amazing music with just the use of bells.
Once again, and I have said it plenty of times in the past and I will continue to say it-I am still in awe at what we are doing, where we live, and the people we live among.
Merry Christmas.
Christmas day.
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Last updated:
12/26/05
.jpg "After digging our machines out of the powder and warming them up. Patty ready to go.")
.jpg "Patty and her machine covered in snow after pulling it out of the hole just visible to the right. The tow rope is still attatched to her machine.")
.jpg "Tired but safe.")
.jpg "Patty dressed and ready to ride to mass Christmas Eve.")
.jpg "An young girl sings solo. She was born in China and adopted by a married couple-she's a nurse practioner and he's a Physicians Assistant.")
.jpg "The bell choir.")
.jpg "The impromptu band and choir.")
.jpg "The Manger with the baby now present.")
.jpg "The altar adorned with a local flair.")
.jpg "One of the hand painted windows.")
.jpg "Note the snowcovered mountains and fur dressed individuals in the lower left pane.")
.jpg "After mass there were plenty of snacks and sweets.")
.jpg "The entrance to the church adorned with a piece of whale baleen with the church name carved in it and a simple wooden cross made from willow.")
.jpg "Getting ready to leave for home.")
.jpg "Our little Christmas tree and our presents.")
.jpg "Our gift to ourselves. A big flat screen TV and surround sound.")
.jpg "It was nice out Christmas day. Only four degrees below zero.")
.jpg "The view out our front window at 10am.")
.jpg "It's now around noon and for the first time is a couple of weeks we have clear skies.")
.jpg "Taken from our dining room window looking towards town over the frozen back lagoon.")
.jpg "Our parking lot-plowed of course-with the boat we share with 6 others sitting under a blaket of snow. (The boat-not the 6 others.)")
.jpg "Patty opening her gift mailed up from Cathy.")
.jpg "The moon is still visible even at 1pm.")
.jpg "Stephanie, Patty's sister, sent her an album with pictures of their mother and old pictures of the family.")
.jpg "We saw sunshine but we never did actually see the sun itself.")