We do celebrate Christmas but we only get a couple of days holiday and even so many people involved in the flying operations and communications have to work as the planes make the most of the fine weather whenever they can.
This year we have been very lucky with the weather so far, all of the science parties have been deployed to the field without much in the way of delays, and the season is going to plan so we were able to stop flying completely on Christmas day and allow everyone on base the day off.
Many of the bases around the Antarctic send greetings to each other at this time of year, ours and a few we received are shown below;
The days off were not spent lazing around by many people, instead there was a football match on the apron in front of the aircraft hangar, Tamsin opened a sweetie shop, and others took to the kitchen to bake cakes, mince pies, or to help out with dinner. Although there was talk of the traditional movies such as The Great Escape, Its a wonderful Life, and Indiana Jones, I didn't get a chance to see any of them.
I did get to chat to some of our other bases and field parties on HF radio, speaking to a friend of mine who is the base commander at King Edward Point was clearer on the HF than it is on the phone!
