Laura On Ice

The biggest party of the year is the Holiday Party, which is held in the Vehicle Maintenence Facility. They clear out all the trucks and other vehicles, and clean the place up really nice, and we decorate it for the holidays. It’s a wonderful big party - the space is large enough where everyone can fit in comfortably. There’s quite a bit of food and libations, and everyone gets really happy. (I should say, mostly happy- as tends to happen during the holidays, there were a number of breakups and other emotional things going down. Just not to me.) 

They had a slide show where everyone could submit pictures of friends and loved ones. So Mom, Dad, Jimbo and Kristi - you all had your picture projected on the wall of the VMF in Antarctica! Sita got her photo up as well, of course, complete with balls of yarn.

I unfortunately lost my camera for a while at this point. I rediscovered it a few days later, on actual Christmas (this party took place the Sunday night before, so we had two days to recover.) I did manage to score a couple pictures from my co-worker Daniel.

The fuelies made this freekin awesome Abominable from scratch. VERY CHRISTMAS!

My friend Jean with the candy cane pole. There was much pole dancing going on once people really got into the beer and unfortunately the candy cane did not survive the night. However, it did live up to its intended purpose with the mistletoe and all. Incidentally, you can see the slide show going on in the background.

A crowd shot. This is slightly less than half of the space we had to play in.

My friend Bill presenting McMurdo’s Santa with a Bass. Many people made that same present for Santa that night. As they say, “bring him cookies and beer, he will come to your house first next year!” Unfortunately, the excesses of beer and friskiness (i.e. gropeage of personal lady bits) landed Santa in H.R. I declined to sit on Santa’s lap this year, which turned out to be a good choice, I think.

All in all, it was a really fun party. It was great to be able to see everyone and have a laugh. Also, the Kiwis grilled up some tasty sausages. Too bad they wrecked them with that ketchup. (Yes, I have a thing about the Kiwi ketchup. I just can’t drop it.)