Celebrating the return of the sun

We still haven't seen the sun yet but that didn't stop us from using its return as an excuse to throw a big party.

We had our last traditional formal dinner, the Sunrise Dinner, on Friday. It was the last time to bring out the table linens this winter and decorate the Galley with lights and crepe paper suns. As you can see through the windows, it's finally light again outside and the window coverings are back in storage until next year.

We raised $450 in donations from the crew to buy wine for the meal. Michael tried a new concept this time for the feast - a family-style Thanksgiving meal. He wanted everyone sitting around a huge table around which the plates of food would be passed, just like a family holiday.

I don't think my family has ever feasted quite like this. Michael and his crew prepared 25 different dishes, from starters featuring tenderloin, salmon and shrimp, to two kinds of homemade rolls, 4 different types of stuffing, 2 kinds of potatoes, 3 different gravies, various veggie sides, ham, cajun pulled pork and 6 perfectly seasoned and cooked, juicy turkeys. Of course, Deb made the most beautiful pumpkin and apple pies for dessert.


Lead mechanic Jack did the ceremonial turkey carving which signaled the start of the meal.

And then the dishes just kept coming out of the kitchen every few minutes. I did a poor job of pacing myself through the meal and ended up with a giant mound of food on my plate by the time all the dishes passed by. I polished off everything - I may not be that big but pound for pound, I can pack away an atonishing amount of food.

We had 50 out of our crew of 60 show up for the dinner. A few here hate the rest of us too much to sit down and eat with everyone else but that's what happens after being cooped up together for nearly 8 months now. We all had a great meal and kicked off a much-needed two day weekend.

The sun should theoretically be visible anytime now. If it weren't so overcast out at the moment, we might be able to see refracted rays peeking over the horizon before the actual globe rises high enough to see it directly. Just as we missed hitting -100F this winter (-99.9F was the closest), we might also miss seeing the sun's initial slow and happy reappearance. That's OK, it just means that we're that much closer to being out of here and sitting on a beach in Fiji...