Christmas-ish Time

Christmas came late here in Antarctica this year. See, it was like this... Santa can only come as far South as New Zealand as the weather is too unpredictable, foggy, windy and too cold for the reindeer to fly so far without any place to stop. After he leaves presents in New Zealand they are flown down here on planes, mostly the C-17's, for us to enjoy. This year the plane got a crack in the windshield and couldn't fly until a new windshield was flown down from the United States. That meant that our Christmas presents didn't arrive on the goodies from ice until several days after Christmas and have continued to come for the last couple of weeks off and on! I've received many wonderful boxes of lots of friends and family. It has been so fun for all of us to have such a fantastic variety of goodies from home. Having treats from home are fun since none of them are available here. The latte machine has been incredible, the chocolates from my family were gone far too quickly, the blanket is super snuggly, and I'm really enjoying all of the books and games as well. We did have a little Christmas tree that I skua'd right when I arrived in October. It still lives on the top of the little tv/vcr in our room and gains new decorations all the time. It's getting to be quite festive! My guess is that it will stay up until I leave the ice the mid/end of February and then it will go back to skua to live another year in someone else's room. What a story this little tree could tell!