Easter

Happy Easter everyone!

Like every other holiday here in the north, Easter involved significant planning.  Now, I know not everyone does Easter the way we do.  There are many people who may give their kids a chocolate bunny, have them search for Easter eggs, and call it a day.  In our house we tend to decorate eggs at home a few days before, and the Easter Bunny gives the kids outdoor toys to play with (because typically Easter happens around spring when the kids start playing outside with buckets, shovels, tractors, etc.).

Well, the first day of spring was last week.  It looked like this:

This is the backyard. It's not a photo I've used before,
it's just that the landscape never changes.

The back deck.

It did NOT look like this:

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(Side note: in Iqaluit, the groundhog froze to death.  Bah ha ha ha ha ha!)

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Of course, living in Canada we have already had our fair share of snowy Easters.  Our neighbours hold a huge annual Easter egg hunt, which has certainly involved children traipsing about snowbanks looking for half-buried plastic eggs.  Usually its pretty easy to just drive down to Walmart and pick the kids up some little toys to put next to their basket, along with the new spring jacket or Easter dress.

This year, I have had to be more creative. I purchased Lego sets for the kids on Amazon a few months ago. I'm so thankful both my children are still into Lego. Building everything requires hours (or at least one hour).  That means, for me, one hour minimum of peace. Unless they start fighting about who is "doing it wrong". 

I have to admit, when it comes to Easter I am a bit of a chocolate snob.  It's not that I won't eat that horrid brown wax sold in Walmart marketed as chocolate, I simply prefer something a little more upscale.  Like Laura Secord, or Godiva, or Lindt.  My mother (bless her) brought up REAL CHOCOLATE BUNNIES (Lindt) for JJ and me that last time she came. She had to search high and low, because when she came up in February bunnies were not foremost on storeowner's minds.  My darling children, of course, are happy with anything.  I usually give them Walmart hollow "chocolate" bunnies.  Unfortunately, those were not available at Northmart. Maybe shipping hollow bunnies via air just doesn't work?  You may end up with a box of broken chocolate pieces.  Not to mention, it would be crazy expensive to ship up those big, lightweight boxes of chocolate bunnies (that are full of air). Talk about wasted space on a shipping pallet! And in a plane! Northmart brought in solid chocolate cheapie bunnies.  

Sadly, not this year.
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Fast forward to two days after I started writing this post:

Remember how in a recent post I talked about Toonik Tyme?  This is an Inuit "Return to Spring" festival that has been taking place here in Iqaluit since 1965.  It is HUGE in town.

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To those of you who felt this post just took a huge right turn--"Wait--I thought this post was about Easter?" THAT'S what living up here is like.  Wait--I thought this weekend was about Easter? Nope.

We just received the schedule for Captain Jack's Toonik Tyme hockey tournament.  (Yes, even though it is the biggest Inuit festival in the north, the schedule came out one day prior to the first hockey game.  Some things never change.)  It turns out the playoff games are scheduled for 3pm and 5:30pm on Sunday!

What about my turkey dinner?  What about lounging around on the couch after turkey dinner?  What about reading a book and playing World of Warcraft while waiting for my turkey to cook?  As it stands, we will not know whether Captain Jack will even be in the playoffs until after Saturday afternoon's game. This means I can't make the turkey one day early as he has a game at 5pm. Unless we do turkey lunch. Oh wait, he has a game at 11am too. No turkey lunch. JJ is working on the Monday after, so no turkey dinner on Monday either.

I suppose I could just not go to the game and have turkey dinner waiting for my family when they get home around 6:30pm.  But what mom wants to miss her son playing a gold medal game in the Toonik Tyme hockey tournament?  The other possibility is that CJS's team will come in last place (there are 5 teams participating) and will NOT end up playing on Sunday.

Let's see what happens.

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Friday

This hockey tournament is something else.  Kids have flow in from all over the territory to participate--Cape Dorset, Arviat, Pangnirtung, etc.  Note: It isn't that teams have flown in, just random kids. Most communities are too small to have an entire hockey team for one age group. (The population of Cape Dorset, for instance, is 1,441.) Even if there were enough kids to form a team, not all families can afford the airfare to get here. (Minimum $1000 per person per flight.)

The group Dane plays hockey with, the Iqaluit Amateur Hockey Association, has incorporated all the kids who traveled to "the big city" for Toonik Tyme into 5 mixed teams of 7 and 8 year old players (except for Pangnirtung, which does have its own team). They are all playing in a round robin tournament, with the final games on Sunday.  I have never seen our local arena so packed with people just to watch hockey.  Even the concession stand is open! That NEVER happens! This tournament, in conjunction with Toonik Tyme, is a big deal.   They have even handed out "tournament jerseys" to all the players!

Aside from the Ice show, I have never seen this parking lot so full.

Mostly there are trucks and the odd snowmobile.

The canteen is open. They were serving "Tacos in a Bag".
Taco in a bag recipe: Open a bag of Doritos. Throw in
 a scoop of chilli. Add a fistful of cheese. Hold bag closed
and shake. Voila! Tacos in a Bag for $7.00.
(I passed.)

Kids in the lobby enjoying hotdogs and juice boxes.

Spectators standing to get a better view of the action. Usually the
local hockey games are somewhat sedate affairs. Not this
tournament. There were even cowbells!

Currently CJS's team, the Aiviqs, sits in first place. If the Nanauqs win their game today, both teams will be tied. Because the team still has a chance of making it to the gold medal game, I decided yesterday that we would have our turkey today, and call it "Good Friday turkey dinner". It turned out great.  After the hockey game both kids played outside all afternoon. When they came back in we had sweet potato casserole, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cooked carrots, biscuits, and cranberry sauce. Yum!

Good Friday turkey dinner.

Saturday

Friday overnight brought high winds, and blowing snow.  The weather got worse today, but not bad enough to keep us from braving the wind and snow and heading in for the hockey tournament! (At least in Iqaluit nothing is very far away.) 

Windows covered with snow that has blown onto the deck.

On the drive in. It's hard to tell, but the road has been covered by drifting snow. Because the
snow is so light and dry, it blows around very easily.

The road coming down from the plateau was very slippery and
snow covered. 

Yup.  There is a house buried in there.

Poor visibility at times due to blowing snow (the arena is the next turn on the right).

Once again, the parking lot was full.  The Aiviqs (Walrus) played the Nanauqs (Polar Bears). JJ took CJS into the change room to put his skates on, and found the head coach struggling to get a few words out in Inuktitut (not his native language). Two players had flown down from Cape Dorset the day before and have been assigned to the team. Unfortunately, neither of the two 8 year old girls spoke English. The coach was trying to figure out what positions they were used to playing.  Its interesting to realize there are still northern communities so remote the children speak only Inuktitut.  (Its been my experience that children are the first to pick up English, due to video games, TV shows, etc.)  

With 30 seconds left in the game, Captain Jack brought the score to 3-2 for the Aiviqs.  Wouldn't you know, the Nanauqs immediately scored again, bringing the final score to 3-3, a tie game! For his team spirit and giving it all to the very end, Captain Jack Sparrow won the trophy for the Aiviqs for "Player of the Game."  It is a large, impressive trophy.  Easter means nothing now.  Hockey is life.

On Saturday Captain Jack won the

"Player of the Game" trophy.

While taking a break at home between games we quickly decorated eggs.  On her last visit my mother brought up a couple packages of plastic sleeves that shrink and cling to the eggs once they are put in boiling water.  I also managed to scrounge up food dye: red and yellow.  So the kids could choose from red, yellow, or "sort-of orange-ish" to colour their eggs.

In other news, there is a blizzard heading our way (turns out the weather this morning was just a hint of what is to come).  The wind has picked up even more, so roads are covered with drifting snow, and cars are getting stuck everywhere. This evening we are supposed to be heading out to play Pangnirtung, the team that flew down especially for this Toonik Tyme tournament.

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What will happen next? Will the Aiviqs get to play Pangnirtung after all? Will they be crushed, or will they go on to play in the gold medal game? Will the Easter Bunny be replaced by the Easter Arctic Hare?  Will he still come to Iqaluit despite the blizzard? Will the rest of the Toonik Tyme "celebration of spring" be cancelled because winter won't go away? Check out the second part of the Easter post, coming soon to a screen near you.