Sunrise, Sunset

Truth be told, these days, sunrise and sunset quite frequently feel like they are one in the same. Sunrise was at 9:50 a.m. today and sunset was at 3:47. To put it in perspective, the kids' school day starts at 9:00 and they get out at 3:30, however, they don't actually make it home on the bust until 3:45. They literally go to school in the dark and come home at dusk. It's quite an experience!

According to our local newspaper, we had a total of 5 hours, 57 minutes, 17 seconds of daylight today. It was a loss of 3 minutes, 17 seconds from yesterday. On the rare occasion that we actually see the sun in the sky, it only comes up as far on the horizon as it does when it's going down in California. When the sun is out, it's a challenge driving during this time of year because the sun is right in your eyes and it glistens off the snow something fierce.

I took pictures to give you an idea of what it looks like outside as it approaches 4:00 these days. As you can see, we had quite a snow storm over the weekend and I took the pictures yesterday before I had shoveled the deck. I'm telling ya' they should have a winter challenge on The Biggest Loser where the contestants have to blow snow, shovel snow, and then compete in some sort of outdoor winter sporting activity. Talk about burning calories!

The shortest day of the year (December 21) will soon be here and then it will be all uphill until the summer solstice, in mid-June. I honestly never thought about, nor truly appreciated the idea of the winter and summer solstice before moving to Alaska. If you were to live here for a while I'm sure you would quickly come to appreciate those two days too. Long live the winter solstice!