Happy Thanksgiving

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Flag of United States  , Alaska,
Saturday, November 24, 2007

We have had a wonderful first Thanksgiving in Arctic Village.  Wednesday was  a half day of school and we (the faculty) prepared a huge feast for the kids and staff.  We had so much food and such a good start to the holiday.  Yesterday we prepared our own family feast and spent a peaceful day at home enjoying our time together.  The weather and scenery is great and it is so festive with the snow and cold.  I prepared an extra turkey for the community feast that the Tribe does each year.  At 6:00 we headed to the community hall for another dinner and a fiddle dance.  The fiddle dances are well known and a tradition during the holidays all the way through the new year.  Trimble our village priest and chief is a famous fiddle player in Alaska and he was playing for the dance.   Apparently, the potlatches go on all season and during Christmas can last well into the night.  The jigs and square dances have become part of the culture due to the Scottish influence when fur trading took the place of subsistence living Sun set 3:00 pm
Sun set 3:00 pm
 .  It is fun for the kids who run around and play and Mary was reunited with a friend that she has not seen in a week or two. 

We are off school until Monday. Then we will head right into the Christmas festivities.  The time is going really fast.  I took a great photo of the sun setting at 4:00 pm yesterday.  I have captured some good shots of the beautiful sky as the sun goes "down".  I feel like I am becoming more involved with the community.  I am getting out and visiting more and people are coming to us to pitch in and help with things.  The kids want to get  a snow mobile since it is a main source of transportation.  It wont happen. It is difficult to get one shipped up here and the maintenance is insane.  Mike just invested in a dish so he can get his football games again.  It had to be shipped here and then he had to install it and find the signal all on his own.  It really is about self reliance up here at times. 

The kids have fallen in love with a website called Club Penguin and they spend time playing interactively with each other.  They also love to visit Becky and play with her puppies and sled dogs.  They have sleep overs with our school aid who is 19.  She is great with them.  One thing I love about being  here is that the kids have recaptured some of the closeness they had when we lived downtown in  Jacksonville.  When we left our old neighborhood and moved to the suburbs they focused on all of the kids in the hood and stopped playing together as much.  They have come to rely on each other here and play such creative games.   They have gotten to know each other again and all of us are closer for it.  We do pluck each others nerves at times since we are in a two bedroom but overall we get along really good and enjoy each other.    Happy Thanksgiving!!!
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melissatucker
melissatucker on Nov 24, 2007 at 07:44AM

Happy Thanksgiving
I am so glad you had a nice Thanksgiving together. It sounds so much fun with the entire community. My Thanksgiving break has been consumed with working on accreditation and a paper for my class. I didn't even have the opportunity to shop on Black Friday. (Something I'm sure you were glad you missed!) Tell the kids they looked great dancing and I love when all the students come up and ask me if I've read the new message from Mrs. Tucker!:)
Have a great Monday off!
Miss you,
Melissa Tucker

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