most wonderful time

After spending a relaxing Christmas Eve with my sister in Calgary, I was on my way to see all the damage caused in Toronto by the ice storm. All I could see was beautiful ice-covered everything.

After days and days of travelling around, I finally had a chance to see my beautiful girl, who is now SO big (32", almost the full length of the wrapping paper tube she's hiding in).

I had the most wonderful time with my family for New Year's Day.

1200 beads

For Black Friday weekend, our neighbour had a sale at her fabric and fur store (in her garage), and I picked up some beads to try my hand at beading. I've been oogling over some of the beautiful beaded moccasins since I got here 6 months ago, and decided that after successfully making my own kamiks, it was time to make some!

This upper took about 1200 beads (individually stitched) and around 12 hours to make. One more to go before I can start cutting the pattern for the rest of the moccasin.

Last night we celebrated Winter Solstice (the darkest and shortest day of the year) by lighting up some sparklers to brighten the night's sky. 

We didn't all have it quite figured out...

This morning was a community pancake breakfast. For $2 a plate, we couldn't pass it up! 

And I thought it was about time I showed off my awesome sealskin and beaver mitts that I got at the Christmas Bazaar in November, made by a woman named Suzie! My family and friends here are calling me a "lifer" now that I have office Nunavut mitts and plan on staying here for who knows how long! (they would say for life)

Christmassy feel

Walking to work this afternoon after my lunch, I took the time to stop and look out over town. There is a very Christmassy feel, even with many of the Christmas lights hiding between the houses and behind the blinds.

(For those of you wondering, this photo was taken at 3:44 pm. The light in the foreground is from the street light just behind me)

cutest little one

I've been caught up in the excitement of Christmas shopping, Black Friday & Cyber Monday sales, and being able to see the Northern Lights as I'm walking home from work at night and again walking to work in the morning.

I spoiled myself a little bit by buying a new camera that will actually let me capture pictures of the day-long night sky, so be prepared for a lot more blog posts with images!

The Daycare closes it's doors for the holidays this Wednesday night, and I am SO looking forward to my Christmas vacation in Toronto!!  (I will be taking A LOT of pictures on this trip!)
Though I don't get back until late afternoon on Christmas day, I can't wait to see all my family (even Carlin!) and friends! In fact, you better book your time with me now because my calendar is filling up quite quickly!!

In the meantime, I am excited for Christmas activities to pick up around town and to get out and enjoy the -52 winds! One of these activities includes the Daycare's children performing in the Christmas concert this Tuesday, my nephew included! This will be his first performance ever, and he will for sure be the cutest little one there!

skidooing

I finally made it out skidooing yesterday afternoon with a few friends. We're down to the last few weeks with sunlight. This photo (taken just before 1 pm) shows the sun at it's highest point during the day. It also shows the Coppermine River frozen over with the ice sparkling in the sun. Unfortunately, it got dark quickly, and none of my other pictures turned out at all.

Annnd my kamiks are finally done and perfect to keep my toes warm in the 30 below weather! I love them and I love showing them off!

tidbits

A lot has been happening so quickly, that despite the slow pace of life here, I've been getting caught up in the new season! Here are a few tidbits of the past week or so -

We got our first blizzard of the year. this picture doesn't really show the amount of snow that was blowing around, though winds were gusting between 50 and 70 for the whole day. I was happy to stay home sick for the day! 

 I made it out to sewing the night after the blizzard, ready to get started on the pattern I picked out for the top of my kamiks. I spent most of the class tracing the pattern and cutting it out. 

By the end of the next class, I had this.

 And 2 classes later, I have just one more top to sew on and then I'm finally on to my duffles! Almost ready to wear them, and it's almost cold enough, too!

On this particular day, I was obsessed with the ocean freezing over and how beautiful it looks to me. Also obsessed with showing how early and quickly the sun is setting these days.. While these were not all taken on the same day, they were taken within the same week.

10:50 am

12:30 pm

4:30 pm

5:00 pm

I made the most deliciously frothy hot chocolate, which ended up being way too much for just one mug, so of course I had to make 2 of them... and drink them both. Did I mention the double layered marshmallows???? 

 Another blizzard!

 And a really lousy picture of the walk back to work after lunch today (4 pm) (why isn't it as dark as the 5 pm picture from earlier, you ask? Well, daylight savings time, sillies!). That light in the sky is the moon.

And for anyone wondering - yes! I have seen the Northern Lights and they are absolutely stunning. Walking home from work last Monday (5:30 pm), the sky was clear of clouds but full of trillions of stars and dancing green lights. I nearly had to pick my jaw up off the frozen ground. Unfortunately (and quite obviously), the camera I have is not nearly high enough quality to catch the beautiful lights, but my birthday is coming up next week.... (hint hint)

a quick scrunch of the nose

I've been feeling more and more "northernized" over the past few weeks as I've been settling in to the colder weather and realizing that it's not so bad. One thing that I've definitely picked up on is some of the local "regiolect" and mannerisms.

There are several phrases here that are really quite common (which will be hard to communicate in writing, but maybe through speaking to me, you'll be able to pick up on some of them).

From working in the Daycare and spending all day with Inuk women and children, I've really started to blend my speech with theirs, constantly saying, "so cuuuute!", "you could", "must be", "how come" and "not eeeeven".

"so cuuuute" - this is really all in the way it's spoken. Kind of a keeeeyuuuuute, starting high, dropping low with the "yu" and gradually getting higher again.

"you could" - common as a response to a question, e.g. "I could pet your dog?" "you could" OR as part of a question: "you could pick me up later?"

"must be" - also common as a response: "looks like it's windy out there..." "must be!" OR as the beginning of a statement/question: "must be just about out of coffee?"

"how come" - pretty much just replaces "why?" I've never heard anyone here ask "why?", only "how come?"

"not eeeeven" - a typical response when I said it was cold when it was 5 degrees outside.


Other examples include saying things like: "that's Allison's one" when referring to just about anything that might belong to me, "pass me the that thing", "look! we have the same and same!" (like if two people were wearing the same colour shirt, or had matching mittens).

One form of body language that took me a very long time to get used to and remember to look for is the way that facial expressions are used to say yes and no. It could be as an answer to a question, or just in agreement/disagreement with a statement, but are accompanied with no speech. Eyebrows are raised high for yes and lowered with a quick scrunch of the nose for no. When I was first working with the children, I kept forgetting to look at their faces when I was asking questions, and even with my staff I would sometimes think they weren't responding to me. I was so glad when my sister pointed out to me what these expressions meant. I've even started to use them myself!