Post Christmas

Christmas came and went with a flurry of Christmas decorations(although only in the galley) and a weekend that went too fast. It didn’t really feel like Christmas this year, I think it was the lack of build up to it. No Christmas music, decorations in just one place, all of that added up to a Christmas that sprung upon us and was gone just as quickly. It was not as bad for me because I had put up the decorations my dear friend Em had sent me and also listened to as much Christmas music as I could when not working(many people were anti-christmas music until right before). Thank you, thank you Em for the Christmas cd, it was amazing and I enjoyed it so much, I also enjoyed the one Crystal and Kyle sent me, however I didn’t open the package until Christmas day so I only listened to it that day. Christmas day started out with the traditional holiday brunch, lots of goodies most of which I didn’t eat although the ones I did were delish. Everyone just chills out, relaxing for the morning, except for us kitchen folk of course. We are hard at work getting ready for the big Christmas dinner. About a week and a half before the holiday, my boss, James, will put up a list designating who will be doing what food for the day. My tasks were cheese trays for the appetizer times before dinner and the roasted vegetables for dinner. All of the veg for my stuff, with the exception of the pumpkin, was peeled and cut up by volunteers the night before, which was sooooo nice cause it would have taken me forever to get all the stuff prepped. Instead I just had to go collect my nicely prepped veggies from them. Awesome. Our menu for Christmas consisted of Beef Wellington and lobster for the main entrees and various side dishes, including my lovely sweet and savory roasted root veggies. Dinner went smoothly, same as thanksgiving, we had three seatings, all very festive with everyone decked out in their Christmas duds. It’s fun to see people that usually where carharts and other various layers of clothing built for warmth only, showered and dressed in their finest(or at least a lot finer than normal). I worked straight though all the dinners, cleaned stuff up at the end and then got out of the kitchen. Pulling a quick superman change in the bathroom, I transformed into a clean haired, makeuped person ready for some Christmas dinner. After eating I found a couple of my friends and we made our way back to the galley for some eggnog and dancing. That pretty much finished out the day for us. Not a normal Christmas, but not too bad either. I missed being with the fam, but it was okay.

More south pole Christmas traditions to follow….

Post weekend

Ahh, the two days off this weekend were so nice. I was really great too because on Saturday most everyone else was still working so it was nice and quiet around the station. I spent a good part of the day in the arts and crafts room working on various projects including two pillowcases that I help Carol make and also a curtain for my window(which still needs some tweaking). It was very relaxing and nice to have nothing that I had to be at for the whole day, some days you just need a day that has nothing on the schedule and those don’t come very often around here. Sunday was nice too, but it felt like a normal one, soaring right by. Now its Monday, with only a couple weeks until Christmas, wow the time has gone by fast.
A new development in the work arena will be taking place after the new year. Carol and I will be switching from the dinner shift to breakfast/lunch. I was going to be switched because it was only fair to let the morning production cook, Jeremy, have a chance at doing something other than breakfast all season. So Carol had a chat with our boss, James, and he agreed to switch us a teams. I’m actually pretty excited about switching, although the whole starting at 3:30 am thing it going to be a bit of a bear, I will get to run the egg line during breakfast in the morning and that will give me a chance to talk to all the people as they come through the line which I will enjoy. Also I think it will make the rest of the season fly right by, by the time we transition and get settled in we will be getting ready to leave. I have enjoyed working dinner, but it will be fun to move to something new.
As far as my neck stuff, I went to the doc on Tuesday before work to see if he could give me anything to help relax my muscles or something. He told me that I had probably strained a ligament in my neck and that it just needed to heal. He didn’t believe in muscle relaxers because he says the muscles are just trying to protect the ligaments. However was willing to give me oxycodone so that I could sleep at night. Thanks doc. Well I took it the first night and it did knock me out and I was able to sleep for a solid nine hours, however the second night I took it I guess my body had already gotten use to it and I only slept for about five hours. Well that’s were mine and oxycodone’s relationship came to an end. I was not going to take a highly addictive drug and not even have it help me rest so my neck could heal. No sir. So now I have just been taking ibuprofen pretty much every day to help my neck feel better. Its pretty much no fun, I have a stiff and sore neck all the time and its not like I can just not go to work or not lift heavy stuff in the kitchen, so I’m pretty sure that’s not helping the situation either. Hmm…..not really sure what more I can do. Keep praying please.