PALMER BUZZ: Perfect Palmer party

If you had a dull Palmer weekend, then you must live under a frozen cabbage. Because Palmer was flashing and buzzing and extra celebratory—all weekend long. I won’t go into a full blown story here but I am going to highlight some of the very best stuff:

There were hundreds of bold runners, wearing hot pink running shorts, headlamps, and glow jewelry in the phenomenal Running of the Beers 5ish K.Magically there were multiple Santa Clauses in Palmer at the same time. Santa was oh-so-patient with the excited children. And his sweet helpful elves helped with the lineups, logistics, pictures and terrified little ones.Over at the LDS church, hundreds of nativity scenes, recreated the Middle East—in Palmer. It is always an astonishing collection. And not to be outdone, there were LIVE nativity scenes in town, with Nativity folks running through town, far from the manger.The best little winter parade of lights, fireworks, and lighting of the beloved water tower were heralded as “as good as it gets.” Thankfully there was no wind and mild temperatures and Palmer has never been as cheerfully crowded.Smoosher Racers were olympic in their coordinated moves and outfits.The Palmer Santacon pub crawl involved dozens of hysterical Santas who crawled out of the woods and convened at the Palmer Bar. It was a jolly sea of red and white.The cutest little antlered reindeer train-ride kept going round and round at the Veterans and Pioneers HomeAn entire homemade gingerbread community was admired fully at the Pioneer Home.There was a serene and lovely Candlelight Yoga Practice held at the Midnight Sun Yoga Center.The Palmer Museum of History and Art had a yummy Bear Creek Wine Tasting and Turkey Red tidbit tasting on Colony Eve.Sugarplums and fairies danced beautifully at The Alaskan Nutcracker at the Glenn Massay Theater at the college.Animals were adopted at the Borough gym during the Colony Day craft show and blood was generously donated at the Bloodmobile in a Community Blood Drive, right on Main Street.Best breakfast was served at the Lion’s Club Breakfast at the Moose Lodge.The quaint and historic Colony House was full of carolers and refreshmentsThere was curious Cookie Ciphering and creative Christmas Crane making at businesses and the library. Horse drawn sleighs and reindeer and search and rescue dogs were animal highlights all day long. The was a free public skate party, pipes and drums beat and cribbage contestThe Alaska Sound Celebration and Mat Su Community Chorus sang it up all over town.Decorated fattie bikes swarmed the streets with their Christmas lights and joined the parade and then danced to Braided River Band at Backcountry Bike and Ski.All the merchants of brick and mortar shops had fun activities and refreshments; and the numerous bazaars and craft fairs were filled with individual vendors—all sharing the joy of the holiday.

Major thanks and major applause goes to the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce and Colony Christmas committee for coordinating this weekend festival. Big applause goes to the creative Palmer Public Works staff for amazing work. And huge applause goes to our own Palmer Police department for keeping things safe and happy for all. How lucky can we be to live in 99645?

And a very booky Palmer Christmas to you

Palmer Book Picks: There are some pretty fantastic titles here from some excellent Palmer readers. Most every title is available at Palmer’s bookstore Fireside or at the library. Here then is the official Palmer Crowd Sourced personal recommendations for book buying and gifting:

Titles in italics are by local Alaskan authors

Historical—Chickaloon Wild, Alaska’s Wolf Man

Alaska fiction—The Snow Child; To The Bright Edge of the World

Alaska mystery—Alaska’s Heavy Light

Nonfiction— Palmer, Alaska: Businesses and Buildings, Hillbilly Elegy, Illusions, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Dresden Files,The Underground Railroad,The Moth, Hotel Pastis,The Rape of Nanking, Unbroken, Outliers, Behold the Dreamers, Shock Doctrine, On Trails, Blood of Patriots, Mastering Mountain Bike Skills, Boys in the Boat

Sci Fi and other fun Fi— Shadow Run, Bobiverse Trilogy, All Souls Trilogy,News of the World, IQ84, Old Man’s World

Fiction—The Egg and I, American Gods, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Someone I Loved, A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Told Me to Tell You She’s Sorry; Artemis, Grapes of Wrath, Love and Other Consolation Prizes, Days Without End, Life After Life, The Alchemist, Peace Like A River, In the Garden of the Beast, The Devil in the White City, Issac’s Storm, A Prayer for Owen Meany. Lamb received the most nominations!

Humor—The Grasshopper Trap

Memoir

Born A Crime—Trevor Noah

The Egg and I—Betty MacDonald

You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me—Sherman Alexie

Poetry—The Echo of Ice Letting Go

Under no conditions should you immediately pull up your Amazon app and order. NO, NO, NO. Instead, pop over to the local bookstore on main street book buzz and buy your favorites locally. You also get points or loyalty reader credits and guaranteed good karma.

Jolabokafloo, aka Jolly Book Flood (Palmer style)

I love trying to say the word, jolabokafloo. It is like a happy joke-word. But it is significant. Last year Heather Lee and Elizabeth Crowley brought Jolbokafloo to Palmer, specifically to Vagabond Blues. It was the best little gathering of friends and strangers……swapping books and chocolates. And that is the entire extent of the gathering. It is a tradition originating in Iceland and taking good root in Palmer.

Here is what you do: Be good spirited first of all. Then bring a good book (unwrapped) and good Chocolate (wrapped) to Vagabond Blues on Solstice Thursday, Dec. 21, between 4 and 6 p.m. Leave with a book and a chocolate. Simple.

Carve out an hour of pure selfish shameless reading pleasure……buy some coffee and a cookie and just sit and read or watch the book bustle. This is a simple book and chocolate transaction. No money changes hands. Nothing is sold. It is simple and sweet and kinda perfect for Palmer.