Land of Misfits

The flower bouquets that were brought in to sell as Christmas centerpieces were chucked in the trash today, before they hit the bag Melvin, who works in the deli and shares kitchen space with me, grabbed a couple flowers and brought them back so I could smell them. Some times I miss home so much that I lose track of why I came so far. Then something like smelling a couple dying flowers reminds me that I am here to embrace moments like this. Little pieces of life that bring immense beauty and joy. When you live in a place like Ontario and you have flowers to smell for such a large part of the year, you don't realise what you have until you move somewhere like Iqaluit. The sweet smell on those flowers reminded me of a thousand things at once and literally made my day. Memories of my mothers overflowing gardens, summers at the cottage, spring time hikes. I've always been the type to stop just to smell a flower or listen to birds singing but to be able to do it here is painfully heart warming.

Today the sun came out, which was exactly what I needed. Nadine and I ran outside in our North mart coats just in time to see it going down behind the mountains. I try to sneak out for a couple minutes on days that Mr.Sun actually graces us with his presence, to breath in the light. Its too cold to feel the warmth but if you stand in the glow of the weak light and close your eyes you can almost feel your body soaking it up. Each and every time this opportunity arises I am blown away by the sight. The sky above the mountains looks like its on fire, with golds and pinks. The lights reflect off of what is left of the water near the back of the bay.

Nadine and Emily, I should mention, are my new girls, the answers to my prayers. They came up from Ottawa and are an incredible part of my production team which is now made up of four. Emily, Nadine, myself and Jennifer, who works part time with us a few times a week. We make up a solid team.

Emily and Nadine have been thrown into meeting everyone and joined us for Christmas dinner last night. Dinner was originally to be hosted in our apartment. As the numbers ballooned we decided to set up a long dining table in the hallway. It was a great time. All the ladies seemed to beat the men home, so we opened the apartments on the main floor and danced between apartments, sharing ovens and knives and Christmas spirit. We borrowed collapsible tables from the store, threw them in the back of Ricks truck and set them up all the way down the long, narrow hall way. We had 22 people here for dinner and a few stragglers followed the meal. It was tight and felt like the land of misfits, but it was fantastic and spirited and Christmas shots have never been so much fun.

Christmas morning was interesting. My exhaustion from the previous weeks caught up to me. I slept until 10, opened gifts, ate breakfast and went back to bed for the entire day. Matt played his video games. The sun never really came out for Christmas, but it did snow, light, beautiful, soft flakes all morning.

I got so many gifts from home, pictures and memories wrapped up. I want to thank my family and friends so much for making my first Christmas away from home so warm. I wish I could have been home but sharing the holiday with my Iqaluit family was really wonderful.

With love from Iqaluit