some beautiful pictures of beautiful times: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1604067186844.2040238.1391040171&type=1&l=38f366780f
in other news, it is still dark, which bugs me. And it's always tough pulling yourself out of the holiday daze, and I've felt it in particular this year - again, I believe that the light (or lack thereof) is no small factor in that. So I don't mean to give a false impression that my Juneau life is all sunshine. It is simply one that is filled with a lot of blessings, but of course a lot of challenges too. I was away from my family for the holidays. It is perpetually dark and dreary, even in the daytime. I am feeling a bit burnt out from working at my service placement, as nearly and dearly as I truly love it there. My community is a wonderful, unfiltered family, and all that such a word implies. But there's a lot to be happy about, too. :)
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
It's (Was) the Holiday Season!
Here we are. The beginning of a new year, and the end of a great holiday season. In part that’s because for the first time, this season has been truly that: a season. December in Juneau is a physically dark month, with the shortest day of the year hitting only 6 ½ hours of sunlight on December 21st – I’ve never been so pumped about a winter solstice in my entire life. But it’s also a bright time for celebrations and potlucks and really just being with each other, and that is what I will take from spending this season here. The days since Thanksgiving have been consistently filled with rich, life-giving festivities, both planned and unplanned, with large groups and small groups and random, perfect groups of people representing the weird and wonderful connections we are making for ourselves here in Juneau.
We started December by throwing all of those people a holiday party, which has become one of my warmest memories of Juneau so far (and over the past month, I’ve accumulated many). 60+ of our coworkers, friends, acquaintances, and support people came over one Saturday night and proceeded to fill this cozy mountain house with so much light and joy. The party spilled into every wing of the house, with a food table stretching along one entire dining room wall with food we’d made, as well as what guests had brought to share. There was mulled wine, Christmas caroling in the living room – complete with guitars, violin, and a cello – and Christmas cookies to last us for the next month. It was exquisite. The people of Juneau have been such a blessing of this experience for us, and it was so beautiful to be able to invite them all into our home and spend some time together.
A week later, my dad arrived into town for the weekend, a trip that by some stroke of luck he’d been able to swing between business trips. I was thrilled to get this chance to show him Juneau – I didn’t think I’d be able to show this place to my family until their visit this summer. I was overjoyed to be able to show him my life here, and to show my housemates one of the people who is so much a part of me and where I come from. My relationships with my dad, my mom, and my brother are a pretty big part of my life, and I was excited to show my housemates that. ALSO, my dad is a big kid, and I knew he’d get such a kick out of my community and the life we live. In spite of flooding inquiries about “what are you going to do with him? What do you have planned?” I refrained from planning too much of our weekend, mostly because that’s just not our style. My dad and I like to chill and eat Chinese food, and that weekend we did both of those things in excess and with great delight. It being his first trip to Alaska, I made sure to show him the most astounding sights and quirks of Juneau, like the glacier, a drive out the road, and our wonderful island of Douglas. But we also spent a lot of time with my housemates, sharing meals – like seal! – and beers and stories at the house. We ended the weekend by seeing A Christmas Carol performance at the little playhouse across the street from our house.
When he left on Monday morning, I felt some pangs of homesickness, realizing just what it meant that I would not be spending the holidays with my family. But, I also looked forward to seeing what our house would do with this next holiday. After Thanksgiving, I had a feeling that our house had a knack for holidays, and I was absolutely correct.
We celebrated Christmas Eve with a trip to Eaglecrest, Juneau’s ski slope, for those of us in the house who weren’t working or out of town. We had ourselves some great adventures – our Californian got his sea legs on skis for the first time, and Megan, Leslie, Shane, and I got ourselves into a situation at the top of the mountain involving avalanche zones and ski patrol, after which we celebrated our survival with French fries. In the evening we exchanges Secret Santa gifts and opened anything we’d gotten in the mail from friends and family, then went to midnight mass. Christmas day brought us a few housemates who were working, and the rest of us had a breakfast together cooked by Leslie, cooked a Christmas meal at the women’s shelter, and had dinner and birthday cake together (a tradition from my family!). After a short work week, we found ourselves at New Years, which we celebrated with dinner together and telling each other stories from each month of our past year, then went out downtown. AND, on New Year’s Day, we did a POLAR BEAR PLUNGE into the ocean, with about 100 other Juneau-ites, which is about 99 more than I was expecting. So fun. So exhilarating. I’m hooked. It was great. I’m doing one on every New Years for the rest of my life.
So, it’s been a beautiful holiday season, where I’ve had time and opportunity to think about not what I’m getting, but what I already have. Spending the holidays away from my family is not a tradition I’m interested in starting. However, I have a wonderful service placement, community of housemates, and larger Juneau community surrounding me. I have a breathtakingly beautiful place where I am lucky enough to live. Back in August when JVCNW was recommending that we stay for Christmas at our placements, they said it was a “chance to redefine how you view Christmas.” After this experience, that is absolutely what has happened, and in the best possible way.
We started December by throwing all of those people a holiday party, which has become one of my warmest memories of Juneau so far (and over the past month, I’ve accumulated many). 60+ of our coworkers, friends, acquaintances, and support people came over one Saturday night and proceeded to fill this cozy mountain house with so much light and joy. The party spilled into every wing of the house, with a food table stretching along one entire dining room wall with food we’d made, as well as what guests had brought to share. There was mulled wine, Christmas caroling in the living room – complete with guitars, violin, and a cello – and Christmas cookies to last us for the next month. It was exquisite. The people of Juneau have been such a blessing of this experience for us, and it was so beautiful to be able to invite them all into our home and spend some time together.
A week later, my dad arrived into town for the weekend, a trip that by some stroke of luck he’d been able to swing between business trips. I was thrilled to get this chance to show him Juneau – I didn’t think I’d be able to show this place to my family until their visit this summer. I was overjoyed to be able to show him my life here, and to show my housemates one of the people who is so much a part of me and where I come from. My relationships with my dad, my mom, and my brother are a pretty big part of my life, and I was excited to show my housemates that. ALSO, my dad is a big kid, and I knew he’d get such a kick out of my community and the life we live. In spite of flooding inquiries about “what are you going to do with him? What do you have planned?” I refrained from planning too much of our weekend, mostly because that’s just not our style. My dad and I like to chill and eat Chinese food, and that weekend we did both of those things in excess and with great delight. It being his first trip to Alaska, I made sure to show him the most astounding sights and quirks of Juneau, like the glacier, a drive out the road, and our wonderful island of Douglas. But we also spent a lot of time with my housemates, sharing meals – like seal! – and beers and stories at the house. We ended the weekend by seeing A Christmas Carol performance at the little playhouse across the street from our house.
When he left on Monday morning, I felt some pangs of homesickness, realizing just what it meant that I would not be spending the holidays with my family. But, I also looked forward to seeing what our house would do with this next holiday. After Thanksgiving, I had a feeling that our house had a knack for holidays, and I was absolutely correct.
We celebrated Christmas Eve with a trip to Eaglecrest, Juneau’s ski slope, for those of us in the house who weren’t working or out of town. We had ourselves some great adventures – our Californian got his sea legs on skis for the first time, and Megan, Leslie, Shane, and I got ourselves into a situation at the top of the mountain involving avalanche zones and ski patrol, after which we celebrated our survival with French fries. In the evening we exchanges Secret Santa gifts and opened anything we’d gotten in the mail from friends and family, then went to midnight mass. Christmas day brought us a few housemates who were working, and the rest of us had a breakfast together cooked by Leslie, cooked a Christmas meal at the women’s shelter, and had dinner and birthday cake together (a tradition from my family!). After a short work week, we found ourselves at New Years, which we celebrated with dinner together and telling each other stories from each month of our past year, then went out downtown. AND, on New Year’s Day, we did a POLAR BEAR PLUNGE into the ocean, with about 100 other Juneau-ites, which is about 99 more than I was expecting. So fun. So exhilarating. I’m hooked. It was great. I’m doing one on every New Years for the rest of my life.
So, it’s been a beautiful holiday season, where I’ve had time and opportunity to think about not what I’m getting, but what I already have. Spending the holidays away from my family is not a tradition I’m interested in starting. However, I have a wonderful service placement, community of housemates, and larger Juneau community surrounding me. I have a breathtakingly beautiful place where I am lucky enough to live. Back in August when JVCNW was recommending that we stay for Christmas at our placements, they said it was a “chance to redefine how you view Christmas.” After this experience, that is absolutely what has happened, and in the best possible way.
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