Volleyball, Christmas, and the Satellite War

Well, the volleyball tournament was a smash success! I took an eager bunch of kids and turned them into Champions! Ok, well, 2nd place out of 7, but it was still a big deal for Venetie (I think they didn't place in the top three last year). There was SO much volleyball! The tourney started on Wednesday and we played 6 games that day alone, best out of three series, then there was the double-elimination the next day. We only went to the third game one time and finished 5-1 on Wednesday and got 2nd place on Thurs as well. For those of you who know how competitive I am, it will come as no surprise that I was incredibly animated on the "sideline," although I think the most stressful parts were being the line-judge. I think I bombed one call that was pretty important, but I felt good when the team I thought I erred against won...
There were about 60 kids all running around John Fredson School during the three day tourney and it was pretty crazy! I was glad to go home during the day and let the chaperones from the other Yukon Flats schools deal with it...my kids were fairly calm, although they would not stop loading up on pop and candy during games. The team had a lot of internal turmoil, that was for sure, but I handled it like any good coach (yelling at them to act like a team)!
Christmas was interesting as well; we were (sob sob) here for the holidays and NOT at Green Lake, but we made the most of it and went to the Christmas play on Christmas Eve. It was fun to watch the kids from school do the play and there was a bit of singing as well before SANTA stopped by (he's practically next door) to hand out gifts to all the kids. Our kids were mildly excited (we're those horrible parents who don't tell their kids that Santa is real) and they got decent presents! There were signs posted all around the village saying that a potlatch would follow the play and THEN the late-night Christ's Mass Eve service, but apparently word got around to the rest of the town (and not us) that this would be switched, so we ended up waiting at the community hall for 2 HOURS since we didn't want to bundle the kids up and go back to church (Baby, it was cold outside). I had to run Macy back to the house 4 times to go to the bathroom, though...we finally ate, went home, watched the Grinch, got up and had Christmas before heading back to the community hall for Breakfast (we were early again...I guess they're serious about "Indian Time") and then had dinner at the community hall that night! There were dances both nights, but were too late for the kids so we've missed out.
Right now its -45 degrees and will be this way for a few days; our heat is running non-stop, and while its probably 65 degrees indoors, there is a lingering cold feeling that has almost a biting feel to it, just to remind you that, holy crap, its cold enough to kill you outside...I was outside for a bit shoveling snow to help Manuel get at our propane tank for the gas stove and my hands about froze off from INSIDE my Carhartt gloves.
Speaking of freezing my hands, I've been participating in an ongoing war with our satellite dish that will probably never work, and the last time I was working on it, I made the mistake of taking off my gloves to get at a bolt; its hard as hell to screw a bolt off without feeling it, but holy crap it felt like I was putting my hand on a burning hot stove; I had a blister for a week!
Last thought, our staff Christmas party was an interesting clash of cultures (we have Gwich'in Athabascan, Hindu, German-raised half American-Indian half German and adopted, American Midwest, Southern (I guess we are), and New Yorkerian); I made the mistake of putting away the food after everyone was done (Mom's fault!), forgetting that the Venetie locals always take a full plate home from a potlatch (Christina made me get it back out). Our "Dirty Santa" gift exchange stealing game was a hoot and a holler (Southern Yankee talk) and I ended up with "The Dirty Dozen" on DVD!
One more week of vacation for me, this is probably the longest I've had in a long, long time (17 days!) Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!