It's Cold in the Dark!!

It would seem that time has gotten away from me again, and here I am bewildered that's it been ages since I blogged about our adventures.  To be truthful, my creative juices have been flowing as I became Tuk's resident poet for several monumental staff member's birthdays, including Greg's, so I have been busy writing....just not here.

The last time I left off, we had just celebrated Hallowe'en.  Well, now we are past Remembrance Day and on our way to Christmas....soon.  This weekend will mark the first Sunday in Advent, so as of then my own personal Christmas season begins.

The side of the school on our way inside from recess last week
at 10:35 a.m.  The moon is still out!

Since Hallowe'en, it's been getting darker and colder - MUCH darker and MUCH colder! Each day we are losing 10 minutes of daylight.  We are at the point where morning recess is spent completely in the dark and we go home for lunch during dawn.  By shortly before 1:00 p.m. the sun is rising on our way back to school for the afternoon.  Even though I say the sun is rising, however, I mean that it makes an appearance over the horizon.  It is absolutely stunning because it is a 2 hour sunrise/sunset combination, because by the end of the school day at 3:45 p.m. the sun is on its way down, and by 4:15 we are in total darkness.  Yup....this is life in the North!  I'm not sure which is worse, total darkness or total daylight.  At least with the total darkness you can go to sleep and not be bothered.  Extra daylight would make you think you had to stay awake, which explains why the Inuvaluit are generally a nocturnal bunch.  What difference does it make whether you sleep during the day or night?  There's logic in there somewhere.

We knew that this was coming, and although I miss the feel of the sun on my face, I have to say that as a family we are more amused by this than we are bothered by it.  We know that eventually one day the sun just won't rise at all!  No dawn.  No twilight. Not even a peep of daylight for three whole weeks! The good news is that we will be in Ontario for most of that time, and by then I am sure that we will be happy to see the daylight.

We are extra glad that Gramma Wilson/Greg's Mom bought us a thoughtful anniversary gift called a Happy Light, which is plugged in by the computer here.  We turn it around so that everybody can bathe within its glow.  It is supposed to mimic the sunlight without the UV rays and help combat seasonal depression, which is something a lot of people who are not from here begin to enjoy about now through to March, when the sun is staying up for a respectable amount of time.  We have been taking our Vitamin D pills and everybody takes their turn in front of the Happy Light.

While all this darkness is descending upon us, so have the colder temperatures.  We have not had a lot of snow, unlike our friends and family in Ontario, but we are 'enjoying' (in the most sarcastic tone EVER) some polar temperatures that have us shivering in our temperature rated boots!  The average temperature these days is somewhere in the -20C range, and with the windchill it takes it down to somewhere between -30C and -40C.  The coldest it's been so far was -45C.  The rule is, once the temperature hits -40, the kids stay in for recess.  There are days when Patrick and Charlotte go sit in Greg's room quietly during their respective morning recesses so they don't have to go outside, and since their teachers are Tuk born and raised, they chuckle because they were so cold when it was -20C outside with windchill.  My kids gave up their recess privileges ages ago!

Another interesting fact I have noticed about the children up here is that the majority of them are very quick and independent when it comes to dressing in their outdoor clothes, even the kindergarten aged kids! They can jump into snowpants, boots, sweater and parka, hat, scarves (one for the neck and one for the face) and mittens/gloves in about a minute flat.  I have never seen it go so fast!  Some of the kids dawdle on purpose so they don't have to go outside, but the majority of the kids up here love the outdoors no matter what the temperature!  They'll tell you one of their favourite things to do is to "play out", which means go outside. My poor kids hurry into their clothing, but they're just pulling the snow guards from their snowpants over their boots by the time most kids are getting in line!  They don't get in trouble for it.  The teachers understand.  Poor Patrick, though, has never been the fastest at getting dressed in either indoor or outdoor clothes.  Until recently, I used to either help him get dressed or hand him his clothes, and when he was young I used to say, "I bet you can't put your shirt on in 5 seconds!" and of course he'd beat the challenge.  It's just that left to his own devices, he'd take 5 minutes to put his shirt on!  Well, now that he's 11 years old and puberty is well upon him, I just encourage him to move along when it comes to his indoor clothes at least.  Outdoor clothes, however, find me holding open his parka and handing him what he needs to put on next otherwise we'd all be in the van waiting for him until noon.

Some kids actually wear their snowpants as pants.  I asked about that, and was told by a staff member that they actually just wear a pair of long underwear so they don't overheat inside and just wear their snowpants all day.  Hmmmmmm.....maybe that's what we should be doing for Patrick!  When we come home for lunch I have told him not to worry about taking them off, but then there is the question of his bathroom break before heading back to school.  "I can't pee with my snow pants on, Mom!".

Right.  The kid has a point.