Celebrating Winter Solstice

On December 21st, Jacquie and I participated in an annual event that some of our friends have done for the past number of years.  That's celebrating winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.  This year the celebration took place on the shores of the Sylvia Grinnell River at Pauline's cabin.

The temperature outside was -30C without the wind chill, although the wind was light.  So it was only natural that we lit a bonfire to keep warm.

At the bonfire there was John, Alex, Scott, Kate, Bonnie,  Carmen, Jacquie and I, as well as Rusty the dog.  We got there at 2:00 in the afternoon and the sun had already gone down.  The sun came up about 9:40 and went down about 1:20 on that day.  

We had some refreshments and trail mix.  One thing I learned is that if you drink beer from cans at -30C, your lips get stuck to the can and it hurts like heck when you rip the can off your lips.  

Oh look, Larry's best side! :-)

The real celebration took place shortly after 3:00PM when Bonnie brought out the sparklers.  We all lit sparklers and waved them around at the moon.  A fitting tribute to acknowledge the shortest day of the year!  

We stayed there for about an hour and a half, until some of us started to get cold feet, then we decided it was time to head back into town.  Thanks Bonnie for the invitation and thanks to everyone else there for a wonderful time and a great experience for Jacquie and my first celebration of Winter Solstice! :-) :-) :-)