Half of my Christmas vacation was spent at Emmonak, and the other half was spent here in Marshall. I went to Emmonak both before and after Christmas. The first time I went to Emmo was to visit my friend Leona Kameroff because I hadn't seen her in a long time. The first night I was there Leona and I put a sled on the back of her family's snow machine, and Leona's sisters Emily and Goula took us for a ride. It was a lot of fun because we kept falling off the sled. I also got to visit a former Marshall High School student, Lois Moore. Other things I did while I was in Emmo were hang out at the pool hall, take snow machine rides, and meet a lot of Leona's friends. The most memorable snow machine ride I took in Emmo was when I was riding with Sean Waska and he accidentally hit a piece of wood and I fell off his snow machine.

The second time I went to Emmonak was for their Christmas basketball tournament. There were 16 men's and women's basketball teams participating in it. The men who took first place were the Stebbins Hot Shots. First place for the women went to the Kotlik Starrz. During the tournament there were dances that took place after the games, which I thought were fun for the first few days. But by the end of the tournament I was tired of the dances because there were so many of them. On January 1 there was also fiddling for the old folks, but I didn't go because I felt too young to be seen in one of those places. During that time I got to see a lot of my cousins from Alakanuk, and I also discovered some of my relatives in Emmo.

While I was here in Marshall I spent most of my time at home enjoying Christmas and my birthday. I didn't go out much and just relaxed and enjoyed my time off with my family. Fred came home to visit and it was really good to have a big brother back in the house. His stay was short, though, and I didn't see him much, but it was cool to have him around again.

Charlotte Alstrom