I had pushed to get back to McMurdo for Thanksgiving, and had made it. After arriving late on Thursday night, I tried to sleep in a little on Friday morning, but someone calling a wrong number at 6:45 put an end to that thought. I tromped off to retrieve my bags from the night before, and then a jaunt to work. Spent most of Friday getting caught up on email, timesheets, and reports, but since it was Thanksgiving, Saturday was a holiday and I could look forward to a two-day weekend. (We normally work six days a week).

While I was back at my room at lunch Friday I was able to call my Mom's. It was Thanksgiving Day there, and all of my family was gathered. Had a chance to talk to all of them, and it made it feel a little more like the holidays. Having spent the past week working in the field camp you had to be reminded it was Thanksgiving. Of course having a Mexican dinner that night might have had something to do with it...

Friday night was the MEC party. The mechanical shop is located in building 58, so their theme was Studio 58 (ala NY Studio 54).

Saturday was a lot more relaxing, I didn't roll out of bed until a little after 8. Had a very leisurely morning. I was reminded of the rest of the world, while listening to the radio news and heard them talking about people getting up at 4 AM in the states to get out shopping for the busiest shopping day of the year. Our Store was a little busy at lunch, but mostly it was people picking up wine for Dinner.

I wondered over to the Galley for lunch. While there ran into Cicely who was in my group that deployed from Denver together and was invited to her room for a wine and cheese party before our 5 P.M. seating for dinner. Since almost everyone has the day off, they split the dinner seating into four sessions, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, and 6pm. Everyone has to sign up in advance for a spot. I spent the afternoon working on my Christmas Cards. (Mail can take a while, so you have to plan a little early.

The Wine and Cheese gathering was very nice. A lot of the folks dress up for dinner. Even though I had just met half of these people an hour and half ago, we had become a group, and had to have the group photo of those of us eating together. I recruited Bruce Blackburn to snap the photos, and he ended up with eight cameras to use.

The galley staff puts a lot of effort in to preparing a great Thanksgiving Meal. They recruit help from the rest of the station, and a lot of people help out to make it special.

Needless to say I was stuffed by the time we finished dinner.

And I forgot to get a photo of the desert line!

If you can't spend Thanksgiving with family, this was a great group of people to share it with. For as large of a group as it was, the spirit of Thanksgiving was great.