Trav's Travels: Christmas from the (nearly) South Pole

12/23

Tonight was the big McMurdo Christmas party at the VMF (vehicle maintenace facility). It was a good time as always. When we arrived, it was decorated to the hilt. Mitch, Elisha, Christian, and I first competed in some Reindeer games (horseshoes and cornhole). They had some tasty appetizers that we enjoyed and 2 different choirs sang Christmas songs. One was funny as they all sang in a monotone. There was a large slid projector projecting pictures of family members, pets, and places back home. I had submitted several of my family and friends. We also sat on santa's lap. Shuttle Bob was santa and his sleigh a snowcat.

In a backroom they had the VMF cafe where they were serving wine and had acoustic music. Elisha and I listened to a couple artists there, including the guy who has mostly funny mcmurdo style christmas songs. After that we went back to the main room, which had become a dance party, so we danced into the wee hours of the morning.

I dressed up in red tights with my christmas boxers over them, a green santa shirt with a sparkly red vest over that and then a red and white tall hat. I also had battery operated blinky christmas lights on and a red cape to complete the costume. Elisha dressed up in similar fashion

12/24 Christmas Eve.

In the morning we did the Ob Hill Uphill Run. It's one of the more painful runs as it's a sprint straight up. I dressed as a super elf (with cape and red leggings) and ended up finishing 5th, with a time of 8 mins 2 seconds. Danny and Derryl announced the race from the top of ob hill over the radio in the style of phil ligget from the tour de france, where they used overblown metaphors and bad accents. I of course didn't hear it, but I heard from others they did some funny commentary on the elf flying up the mountain and when I got to the finish, they said "that's not just a sexy elf, that's Travis Guy". You have to wait on the top of windy obhill, in costume until everyone was done (which was 38 minutes for the slowest), so you get quite the chill on such a cold and windy day. So Elisha and I stayed snuggled in bed and watched 3 Christmas movies the rest of the day until our Christmas dinner reservations at 5.

We shared a table with the rest of Crary staff, and had a fun time. They had prime rib, crab legs, and best of all lobster tail among other yummy things. They also had a huge area of desserts including 3000 some home made, hand made truffles they told us. The management also bought us all wine. After stuffing ourselves at dinner we all headed to one of the dorm lounges to hang out until going to the chapel at 9 for the Christmas service and to hear Linnah sing in the choir. Unfortunately 1/2 way into the program, I started feeling really sick and had to go home and vomit. I guess something didn't agree with me

12/25 Christmas day

I was feeling much better today. We opened gifts in the morning. Elisha made me a cool Antarctica banner decoration out of flags, and she also gave me a 80% completed ski hat that she's working on, so that was very sweet of her. We then went to Christmas brunch and then cross country skied the castle rock loop. It was a bit windy up top, so we ate our snacks in one of the little shelters. We were reading through the log and found our names from years past in a couple of places, which was cool. After dinner we enjoyed baileys and hot cocoa with Kerre (Cassa Grant’s little sister) and Blake while watching elf, and we finished the night watching the end of the original Miracle on 34^th street.

12/27

It was a super beautiful night so Elisha and I skate skied from Willy field to Scott Base.

12/28

We had fire extinguisher training today which was a lot of fun b/c we got to put out a gas fire with the extinguisher. It was another nice evening so I skied from Willy to LDB and then back to Scott Base

12/29

Yet another beautiful, windless night, so we skied from Willy to Scott Base again.

skiing back from castle rock

castle rock climb in Christmas 2011 with Jerod

My first ever castle rock ski with 2 ladies from Estes Park

This year's Christmas ski to Castle Rock

Maybe our first trip to castle rock together

Inside the castle rock shelter

the gift Elsiah made me

Christmas plate: post

Crary Staff: L to R: Mitch (admin), Graham (Research Associate), Clair (wife of Neal former research associate), Christian (diver), Linnah (hazardous materials specialist), Carolyn (lab assistant), me (lab assistant), Elisha (science supply)