The new year is here. How did we celebrate the new year? We had a bonfire. Sure it was minus 30C outside but we have a little cast iron pot belly stove complete with chimney, sitting outside on the tundra. We built a wall of snow bricks cutting them out of a drift with a saw. The blocks would squeek and squeal just as though they were made of styrofoam. The wall, when finished, stood five feet high and twenty feet long. It curved around the pot bellied stove in a semi-circle. The wall protected us from the wind while reflecting the fire's warmth back at us. There were twelve of us, feeding the fire, feeding ourselves, telling stories and playing backgammon. The fire raged and the hot toddies abounded. After several hours of fire, backgammon and hot toddies, we prepared for the strike of midnight. We looked out onto Frobisher Bay to see snowmobiles stretching in a line over two miles long. They were heading out onto the sea ice for the midnight ringing in of the new year. The snowmobilers formed a huge circle several miles out on the ice. There had to have been hundreds of them. I poured another rum toddy and watched the spectacle. At the stroke of midnight, we started to fire flares. Red flares, green flares and bright blue flares. Some of them would whistle while others would light the beach up as if it were daytime. We could hear people shouting and sounds of air horns, sirens and other loud noises. The new year is here! Happy New Year!
The snowmobiles rode around in a huge circle for several minutes. We could see others with fireworks and flares out on the ice. We watched as the machines broke the circle and started to head back into town. The two mile long line of headlights formed from shore to sea ice. The stars in the sky were bright and numerous. The northern lights seemed to dance in green, red and blue to welcome the new year. My toddy was not very hot anymore. I made sure that the next one would have more rum in it to avoid having my drink freeze in the -30C air. I cuddled up near the fire for a few more hours. A few more games of backgammon. Many more hot toddies. I looked at the wall of ice that we had made. The women had decorated it with ice candles of various colours. It really looked great! We were all tired and a bit drunk when we decided to let the fire burn out and call it a night. It was a very good New Year's Eve indeed.
