Palmer Christmas

Though being away from my family at the holidays is my LEAST favorite part of contract work, Christmas at Palmer was as nice as a family-less Christmas can be. The chefs made us an amazing Christmas brunch spread (and later a Christmas dinner, of which I failed to take any pictures).

And C, my Logistics/Cargo partner-in-crime, and I held a cookie-decorating event, which involved some baking the day before...

And then a LOT of frosting and cozy fun on the day of.

We kind of half-heartedly made the pieces for a gingerbread house, and used the cookie cutter of our resupply vessel that one of the chefs had previously made, so that we also had a ginger-bread boat. The house lacked structural integrity despite the extreme amount of care put into it. All the same, the house and the boat were the most impressive part of it all when the frosting was gone and we were all sugar-crashing.

We also did a gift exchange, which was of course entirely optional, but which nearly everyone on station participated in. It was nice to have almost everyone together for a totally non-work-related reason, and for the laughter that comes with the playful theft of a White Elephant. These were high-quality gifts, too--I was impressed.

Merry Christmas from Palmer Station!