Greetings! I've been working with Drupal for 6 years, was project manager for the Drupal.org Git Migration, and have recently joined OpenSourcery (an Acquia Training Partner) in Portland, Oregon as their Learning Services Coordinator. I also grew up in Delta Junction, and I'm coming home for winter holiday. Since I'll be in town, I was considering offering Acquia's Drupal 7 in a Day on Monday, December 19 and Site Building with Drupal 7 on Tuesday and Wednesday, December 20 - 21.
The two workshops can be taken stand-alone, and they're designed to compliment each other so that three days combine to provide a rock-solid foundation for site building. They're great to help people get started on their own Drupal sites, but we get participants from Drupal shops, too, interested in giving prospects and clients both a more thorough understanding of Drupal to promote better communication and clearer expectations.
There are details on the courses here:
http://training.acquia.com/portland/2011-10-10/drupal-7-day-portland and
http://training.acquia.com/portland/2011-10-11/site-building-drupal-7-po...
If there's need and interest in training, let me know, and I'll get dates for Fairbanks on the calendar.
Independent from that, I love getting together with people from the Drupal community, so if there are any pre-holiday meet-ups in the works, I definitely want to attend. :)