:) Happy Holidays :)

Sorry this blog has been soooooo delayed!
Moosey and I are READY to travel and celebrate the holidays!! We have a half day of school Tuesday and fly out of Kong (weather permitting) at 3:30! I should be getting into Cincinnati around 7:00 on Wednesday! ☺


So I’ll try to catch you all up on things around here… Not a whole lot is new with the exception of celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. I pretty much get to sleep in until noon every weekend and LOVE it! We really haven’t been doing much of anything on the weekends though besides work, eat, sleep and watch movies.

For Thanksgiving we had a Village feast at school on Wednesday. EVERYONE from the village is invited… and I think most people came. The school provides the food but people are also asked to pitch in… not many people brought food IF anyone.





On Thanksgiving Day we made a feast! Megan, Rachel, Garnet, Daryl, and I ate together. Kristina and her little boy joined us for dessert.

The village also had a Thanksgiving Basketball tournament in which teams from Kong (and other villages are welcome to join) play. I think some teams from Kwig came over and people came by snowmobiles to watch. One of the ladies asked if I wanted to play on her team earlier in the week. I thought it sounded fun so I agreed. Well…. On Friday I got a phone call around 2 that our team was about to play. Please remember that I haven’t played since high school. I started to get nervous… and when I walked into school I had the most social anxiety that I have ever experienced. I walked into the gym to find ALL of the bleachers packed (not like there are that many but still…) and people were seated all around the court! Not only would that many people be watching us play (a sport that I HAVEN’T practiced or mentally prepared for) but I was also the only Gussaq (pale white person) in the place. I felt that all eyes would be on me as a clumsy, pale white person. Honestly I turned around and walked out of the gym into the school office to try to convince myself to walk back in. Margaret (secretary) was in the office and told me not to worry about it, just to go play, so I did. I played and it wasn’t the greatest (my shooting is horrible… people actually laughed… no joke- because I would throw the ball towards the basked too hard). But I survived. Little did I know that at about 10:00 PM we were going to play another game!!!! I played better this game but unfortunately not all of our team showed up so a majority of the game we played 4 v 5. I was SO SORE by the end of the game. I went home, fell asleep, and did not wake up until past noon the next day. When called on Saturday I skipped the game because I was seriously that sore. Needless to say, unless I start practicing I don’t really plan to play in many of these tournaments.

That weekend one of the HS students also came over to teach me to crochet. She makes these AMAZING hats! She can put flowers, hearts, letters etc. on the hat. Anywho, she started teaching me and at one point said, “Wow, I though it would be easier to teach…” Whoops! But she was patient and I learned ☺ About a week later I had a good start on a hat (or so I thought) because when I showed Rachel she just laughed and said “WOW that is BIG”. Garnet had the same reaction. Little did I know but the student told me a week later that she heard it looked like it would fit a balloon head. I scratched that hat and started a new and improved one… she is supposed to come over tonight to teach me how to finish it. I bribe her with food and yarn.

This is just a random picture of my extended day group- they are 3rd and 4th graders.


About 2 weeks ago I got to go into Bethel for some training. We are looking at starting to use SRA at my school and the sped department paid my way to go to Bethel. Loved the training and we are going to start using it with a small group in January already ☺ Moose came into Bethel with me so he could go to the vet. Vet said he was a happy healthy good boy and then gave him his shots so he is ready to travel home! While I was in Bethel it warmed up a TON (up to 40 there) and the snow started melting- everything was pure ice. I luckily (because I was sick and wanted to get back) got out of Bethel on the one and only flight going into Kong. Maybe not such a good idea… On this flight I had actually come to terms with the fact that I was going to die or at least have a tundra landing. When we went to land in Kong we flew right over the runway without touching down. We then circled around and as we were circling we were on our side headed what felt like straight down to the ground. We did level out (much to my surprise) but we were not lined up with the runway and at this point I really thought it was over- we were crashing into housing. BUT the pilot must have known what he was doing because the wind blew us over enough that when we landed it was on the runway and everyone lived happily ever after. The picture below is of Moose practicing his sled dog skills… not very good ones. I needed him to pull his kennel so that I could carry my bags. He did not like this at all.


For anyone who has never seen the Apple program Photo Booth... lets just say it's amazing! This is a picture of a couple of kids and myself. They were playing around on Photobooth during some free time and asked me to be in the picture. I crack myself up every time I look at this picture- hehehehe.


Last night we had the Christmas Bazaar at school. People were welcome to come in and set up tables with crafts/food to sell. As expected I spend too much money- I bought little muckluck boots (which all the kids thought I bought to put on Moose), dance fans, and Eskimo keychain, a bracelet, and Akutaq (my berry, Crisco, sugar, water dessert). I also brought dried fish home for people to try—not my favorite but some people may love it! During the Bazaar they also had the 1st public performance of Kong’s Eskimo Dancing. It was AWESOME. I have only been to one practice therefore I did not perform… but enjoyed watching it. I have videos to show you sometime. The picture below is the gingerbread house that Daryl (principal) made to raffle off for $ for student council. Not going to lie- he made the best gingerbread house I have ever seen—and he made it from scratch!


After the Bazaar I came home and packed for Tuesday. We can’t wait to be back for a bit! In case I don't blog again before- have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!