Holiday Festivities

McMurdo Station has been pretty warm recently, especially since we just passed the summer solstice. The sun has reached the highest point that it will go and has slowly begun to sink back down towards the horizon (although we'll still have 24-hour daylight until February 20). There were many holiday festivities down here over the past couple of weeks, and so I've posted some pictures from a little bit of everything. :)

It's actually warm enough that I can wear shorts!! :-D

NANA, the company that hires all the station services positions (janitors, dining assistants, recreation planners, etc.) hosted a Christmas party for all its employees, and I got to be Santa Claus. Ho ho ho!

Austin sits in Santa's lap.

Bryan sits in Santa's lap.

David sits in Santa's lap.

Aireana sits in Santa's lap

Santa sits in Ciara's lap! ;)

Larry decided to sing a karaoke song...

...and then firefighter Chris joined along. :)

Several janitors singing a group number.

Over the last couple of years, it's become a McMurdo tradition to do a live presentation of the Charlie Brown Christmas special. This year I got to help continue that tradition as Snoopy! The best part about being Snoopy was that I had zero lines to memorize. :-D

The cast of Charlie Brown. Can you guess which people played which parts?

I also got to sing in the Christmas choir, something I haven't done since high school. On Christmas Eve, we sang carols over the radio to the South Pole station and to the many field camps scattered throughout Antarctica. It was quite an experience knowing that my voice was traveling to the very bottom of the world. Afterwards, we also sang at the stationwide Christmas party.

The Christmas choir singing to the South Pole station.

Gracie poses next to Santa Claus. She sang in the tenor section with me.

The Christmas Choir sings at the stationwide Christmas party.

Austin, Ciara, and I pose for a silly picture.

David loved his Rudolph ears and flashing nose!

This time I didn't have to be Santa Claus. :)

As at Thanksgiving, the dining staff served up a fantastic holiday meal on Christmas Day, including duck, lobster tail, amazing garlic mashed potatoes, roasted red pepper gnocchi, truffles, and all kinds of other yummy desserts.

Christmas dinner

Larry was very excited about his Christmas gift, a can of unicorn meat...

... until he opened it to find a stuffed dismembered unicorn inside!

Larry and I dressed up for a photo at the McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery (MAAG), an annual event featuring all kinds of crazy art exhibits, performance art, and a fashion show.