It's beginning to look a lot like....Christmas??

I know that sounds crazy for all of you lower-48ers, especially those in desert climates but it's true...I swear. It is beginning to look like Christmas. Let me give you a small informational segment here. If you haven't heard, Alaska is majestic and well, just a little strange due to the weather. For instance, if you die in the winter and were living in the interior (that's the part of Alaska where I live) and wished to be buried, you would have to wait until the ground wasn't frozen and they would keep you on ice (literally) and bury you in the spring. Don't plan your funeral just yet you could potentially put it of for months. The Fairbanks area usually gets it's first snow of the winter in the first week of October. Along with the winter snow that we get, comes ice. It is pretty hard to put Christmas lights up when it's -40F and there are 3 plus inches of ice on your roof. The solution? Put your lights up in September when it's Autumn and take them down after the season is completely over in April or maybe even May. There are lots of lights up already and this past weekend we saw some of our neighbors doing it too. The one nice thing about that is that they don't actually turn on the lights until it's time. The other weird thing about the upcoming holiday season it that because we are losing daylight at a fast and furious rate you get to see the Christmas lights at 3 pm. True story.
Another signal that the seasons are changing is when you wake up to this: That's right, my 2 best boys ready for Sunday football. Another fun Alaska fact is that since we are so far west and we have our own time zone, football games come on at 9am. Fun for me....Not! (oh yeah, go Vikings!)