... and yet a little colder

Amy, you are entitled to your complaints about cold! Your cold and my cold mean different temperatures. We grew up in different cultures of cold, and those cultural issues are part of what I hope makes this Finnish-American space of ours interesting! For me, cold is easier to deal with than rain, especially when cold is compensated by clear skies. We have had plenty of those recently, and this is what the rest of the week looks like. Last week we experienced colder than -20 degrees Celcius (below -5 Fahrenheit), which is exceptional even here, but you must have learned by now that even in temperatures like that life just keeps on rolling. Kids go to school, grown-ups go to work, the most resilient do outdoor sports, and little children play outside, if even for a short while. Practices vary, but in my daughter's school kids always go outside for recess, even on days like these, at least for a few minutes. One of the things I love most about cold is thick natural ice on the sea. Of course it is most enjoyable on sunny February days of about -5 C (23 F). Those days are not far away! These pictures are from a day of about -10 C (14 F).

Cold and colder

I know I'm really not one to complain about the cold, but it's been creeping up on us, little by little.  Now this morning, I realize that I have done nothing to protect my cold-sensitive plants, like my hebes and star jasmine.  The pellet stove runs full blast all day, my skin is dry, and all I want to do is stay inside and eat and drink coffee.  This morning, I decided to finally embrace the cold and make some ice rings, but then I saw that today will get up to 50 degrees (10C), so I guess I will just dump them out as they will not fit in my freezer!

This holiday season was marred by food poisoning (Christmas Eve) and strep throat (New Year's Eve), so my apologies for not having any holiday pictures!  At least it kept off the extra holiday weight!

The picture of the boy eating was the first time we made the avocado pasta.  That one was really delicious!

365 lahjaa

For my family, the past year has been a dramatic one. One of our children was diagnosed with a permanent illness at the end of summer, and though the worst of the crisis is over, every family member is still reacting in their own way to the changes in our everyday life. In the autumn we also celebrated a 10th birthday, and discovered that there will be yet another, new birthday in the family next spring! The cherry on top (or sugar at the bottom, as they say in Finnish) is that our due date shares its place in the calendar with our 5th wedding anniversary!

At the Christmas festivities of my daughter's school the principal, whom I happen to really like, gave a speech on the theme of gifts. He reminded us that at the beginning of the new year we all receive 365 new gifts, and that the most valuable gift each of us can give is time. There's a thought to hang on to!

These pictures were taken here and there during Christmastime. I suspect some non-Finnish readers may need an explanation for the last picture: these are gingerbread versions of some of the inhabitants of Moominvalley.

All December we had the privilege of snow (a quite ridiculous amount of it really, with periods of almost nonstop snowfall for days on end). Between Christmas and New Year it changed into rain, so now our beautiful scenery is gone. But for once we were able to enjoy the confidence of a white Christmas!

May I wish you peace and love in 2013!