Christmas in Iqaluit

So much has happened over the past few days!  We had the winter solstice (longest night/shortest day of the year), Coraline's birthday, Christmas Games, and the Christmas Pageant. Its now Christmas day. If you are like us-- after all the baking, the wrapping, the visiting, and once the presents are open-- you start getting kind of bored. You have come to the right place. What could be better to do than read? Rather than writing several posts to be published over the next week, I've chosen to divide one somewhat longer post into sections.  This way, you have something to do instead of trying to make small talk with Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.

Happy reading!

December 21st

Today is the winter solstice. This makes it the darkest day of the year.

Coraline and Captain Jack Sparrow, sunrise at 9:22.

The photo above was taken at sunrise today, 9:22am. The sun sets today at 1:42pm, for a total of four hours, twenty minutes of "daylight". Yesterday the sun rose at 9:21 and set at 1:41pm, which also gave us four hours, twenty minutes of "daylight", so no real change. On Christmas day we will have an extra two minutes of daylight.  Wahoo.

Rather than stand around gawking at the sunset today (which is not realistically any earlier than it has been lately, only by a couple of minutes), we are going to a matinee.

Captain Jack, Bea, Coraline at 1pm, 40 minutes before sunset.
Not a huge difference in the amount of sunlight.

In addition to it being the winter solstice, it is Coraline's birthday! She turned 11 this year. Unlike Captain Jack, Coraline prefers to keep her birthday celebrations low-key.  Rather than a crazy pool party with lots of kids, Coraline has invited one friend (Bea) over to spend the day with us.  We'll be going to see the movie "Coco", then home for the kids to play (inside of course, it will be dark), then pizza and cake once JJ is home from work.  Aside from asking a random stranger on Facebook to bake you a cake, the only place to buy them in town that I have found is Northmart.  This morning we went in after dropping JJ off at work.  Our choice of birthday cake was chocolate or......chocolate.  Coraline went with chocolate, which happily was her first choice anyway.

Bea and Coraline go to the movies.

Update: Coraline had a fantastic, quiet birthday.  She got a beautiful watch from her cousins, some clothing, birthday cash, fantastic doll clothes, her sealskin headband, a DVD about cats in Istanbul, painting supplies, and lego.

The sealskin headband she begged for on Thanksgiving
is finally hers.

All 4 cakes in the store had green and yellow balloons
on them. All 4 were chocolate. It was a non-fussy birthday.

December 24th

Christmas is here!  In Iqaluit, that means its time for the Christmas Games.  Don't know what "Christmas Games" are?  Well, you aren't alone.  We had no idea either, but they are very popular up here.  There are games for kids, games for adults, snowmobile races (and a parade), skating, pool party, etc.  The schedule for the games doesn't provide much detail--often there is just a time and a location. Sometimes the games are as simple as "Hot Potato".  Other times you may show up and join a circle of traditional Inuit dancers.

Christmas Games schedule as posted on Facebook.

Today (Christmas Eve), JJ took the kids to watch a snowmobile race just down the road from our house on Dead Dog Lake.  (The name of the lake? Don't ask. I haven't.) The race was 10 laps.  Tires marked the course. The tires will be staying up for future races, and taken back to the dump in spring.

CJS found a unique place to veg out while
waiting for the race to start.

As did Coraline.

On yer marks..........

And off they went.

See those black things sticking up? Those are tires.
That's how they mark the track.

Winners of the race were posted on Facebook.  I don't think there were prizes, participants raced for honour and glory.  The race organizers are looking for a photographer.  Payment will be in the form of free coffee.

In a previous post I mentioned how "relaxed" the church is here.  JJ noted on the schedule a couple of weeks ago that there would be a Christmas pageant today, performed by the children.  "Huh", we both said. "Funny that we haven't heard anything about that. Must be other children."  Then a few days ago I got an email asking if the kids would be interested in participating.  Coraline's immediately reaction was to roll her eyes and sigh.  "Ugh", she said. "Christmas pageant?"  Then I told her they wanted her to play Mary.  Her eyes lit up. "I'm the STARRING ROLE!"  "So, that's a yes, then?"

Captain Jack Sparrow was tagged to be a shepherd.  Since JJ was the one to take the kids to one-and-only-practice, and since they were short actors, JJ is also a shepherd. He was asked to please bring a bathrobe.  (SO glad I was home wrapping presents!!!)

Shepherd #1, Shepherd #2, Mary

Having a pep talk with Shepherd #3, who was quite nervous.

The pageant went off without a hitch. All around the world cardboard sheep, baby Jesus dolls, and tea towels are being put back into storage until next year.

December 25

Its finally Christmas!  What do you get for Christmas in the far north? Well, you get the usual sundries: candy, books, clothing, toys.  Lego featured prominently in our house this year.  However, since you are in the land of 6 month sub-zero temperatures, you also get FUR!!! (If you don't know why fur/sealskin is a big deal up here, click here.) Coraline loves her sealskin mittens.  She also got a sealskin coat for her doll.  Captain Jack is sporting his new hat. I got sealskin mittens (that I purchased awhile and posted about here), and a gorgeous fox fur scarf. Captain Jack also got an Iqaluit Blizzard hoodie, with the flag of Nunavut on the arm (more on the Blizzard to follow in a future post).  JJ has been playing squash here at the local racquet club so he got a Frobisher Racquet Club jacket.

Sealskin mittens

Fur hat

Mommy's sealskin mittens

JJ's Frobisher Racquet Club jacket

Fox fur scarf

Sealskin doll coat

Iqaluit Blizzard hoodie.....

.....with flag of Nunavut

Merry Christmas everyone!  The second part of this post was put together quickly, so I apologize in advance for any typos or grammatical errors. Now I'm off to cook a turkey dinner.

Up next: Something good!  Probably on Thursday, like usual. :)