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Now I wish this photo had been taken by me.

It's from Australia.
A classmate of mine was there a year ago and I edited some of her photos. I simply love this one.
So all credit on the photo go to Marja H.

Tomorrow I'll show you the progress on Niina's dollhouse.

HAPPY 2007!!!

Our Christmas in pictures

Plenty of candy out to be devoured.

My favorite photo of our livingroom, taken on the 23rd.
So inviting...

On Christmas Eve we drove up to my in-law's.


The girls decorated the tree, we snacked, relaxed, snacked some more, ate dinner and waited for Santa.


He brought quite a load. He was a bit sneaky... he had left the presents in the dining room instead of under the tree and it took a while for the girls to notice...

Quite a lot of exitement here.
Saara got a Play Station Portable and Niina a dollhouse from Santa.

I got a cool painting from Cuba, where my brother and his fiance Petra just vacationed.

Saara reads directions while Janne tries out Monkeyball.
Niina was a bit tired as the exitement wore down.

Seriously...this is how Kobi usually has his paws.
So we got a little silly..
Could have been the red wine.

Maybe.

Are you all ready for 2007?

Almost time

Tomorrow is Christmas.

I've just visited the graveyard and lit candles with my mom.

Decided to make the last batch of cookies on Christmas Day, rather than stress about them tonight.

Still have some wrapping to do. Planning to that while eating goodies and watching the two episodes of Sopranos we recorded.

The kids are wondering what they'll find in their stockings in the morning.
(our stockings are filled in the morning of Christmas Eve, as Santa visits us that night. The stockings are not a finnish tradition at all, but ours were adopted during our years in Michigan)

I'll come by here tomorrow morning to change the banner.
It might take me until Christmas Day to upload my last photo of the day (today's is really cute!), but I'll get it up there.

I wish you all a very peaceful Christmas.

Rauhallista Joulua.

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Now go eat something good.
Chocolates await!

Gracing our livingroom

Here it is.

In all its glory.

And glimmer.

And shine.

And twinkle.

It's so pretty.

I feel a little like Gollum:

"Myyyy preeeciouuussss..."

Thursday? Really?

Where did yesterday go?
I didn't have time to even come change the banner, LOL.

Today was Saara's Christmas Party.
A big musical production called "A Moose on the Loose".
Oh was it ever good.

The storyline:
One of Santa's reindeer is kidnapped by The Bad Guys (aka Jeti, Bigfoot and the Abominable Snowman). As ransom, they want all of Santa's toys. Morris the Moose leaves the petting zoo to go help. On the way he meets up with some geese, wolves and polarbears who help him defeat The Bad Guys and free Dancer.
And Christmas is saved.
Hurray.

The make-up and costumes were fabulous.

Here are the geese, wolves and polarbears.

And here, The Bad Guys.

Second from the left is Saara.
Yes, really.
I did not recognize her when she got on stage.
She was Bigfoot with the accent of a New Jersey made man.
It was awesome.
And soooooooooooooooooooooooo funny.

Real mobster attitude.

My arm itches.
I had some acupuncture treatment on it...

See all the red dots?
That's what happens when you rig lights to a very nice Christmas tree.

It waits for the decorations.
In just a bit.
I need to go eat a cookie first.

Ummm... I meant an apple...yeah...that's it... two apples in fact..
;o)

Ramblings on a wintery tuesday

Finally.
Check that weather ticker to the right!
Apparently it'll just be here for today, but I'll take it.
It's lovely.
So refreshing, bright and I get to wear my thicker wool socks.
And look:

A dusting of snow.
It's always so hard to try to show you the shortness of our days this time of year.
Today, the sun rose at 9.22am and it will set at 3.12pm.
This is how low the sun was at noon. It barely made it over the roofs.
Today feels bright with the sun shining.
You can only imagine how dark the days were with the clouds hanging low.
Thursday is the shortest day of the year.
After that the light starts winning.
Minute by minute.

Wish the snow would last.
But they are predicting no more and the temps will be just above freezing...so..
It won't be a white Christmas.

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I got our stockings up on sunday.

Niina still needs a ...oh what on earth do you call them.. stocking holders?
Anyhow, she needs one that matches the theme of her stocking.
Naturally those aren't sold here. But I tipped off an airline stewardess we know and she was shopping in Manhattan yesterday. I hope she found something. That would be fabulous.

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Niina's dollhouse arrived yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You can't imagine how relieved I am.
I'm not even bummed I don't have time to build it before Santa brings it.
This was a order made together with a friend.
She bought a lovely big dollhouse and I got the cute victorian cottage type.
I had asked the great folks at Greenleaf to mark the customs price at about $40.
The slip said $39.
And it still went to customs.
Ugh.
Of course this was a huge, heavy (16 kg/36lbs) box and from outside the European Union.
This time of year they check everything it seems.
So I had to drive to the customs post office.
And open the box to see the invoice inside.

And this is where my creative devilish side took over...

There was no invoice slip.
Oh ...
But she still needed a value.
I went upstairs to the library computer and printed out the pages with the houses.
But see, she hadn't pulled out the heavy big dollhouse box... and hadn't looked at the name.
And I wanted to help my friend out.
So I printed out a page with a slightly smaller house but similar in style, if not price ;o)
Yes.. I know... not very honest...
But it saved my friend from having to pay customs.
So I don't feel too guilty.

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Niina's feeling almost back to normal.
Her neck still hurt a bit yesterday, so she wasn't at school. But there was no constant crying, so I knew it was better.
Today it only hurts if she turns her head up.
So I packed her off to school.
It was dress rehearsal day after all.

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While she was at school I hit the mall.
I got the last two missing gifts.
Then I drove to the flower shop and got myself some Christmas flowers.

Pink and red carnations.
20 of each.
They are gorgeous.

I always feel sad when people talk about carnations like they are second class flowers.
I admit, if you get three carnations and add in a bit of baby's breath it does look tacky.
And I know what I'm talking about, I used to have a flower shop myself a million or so years ago.
It's all about how you use the flower.
Bunched together like this...well... you can't beat it.
It's cheap and as long as you give them fresh water, they last and last and last and last and last and last...

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More baking today.
Making date coffee cakes.
As in coffee cakes with dates in them...hehe... they could work the other way too, I guess.
I have a great recipe that makes three at a time!
And two more loaves of bread.
And these:

So what does come from butter, sugar, molasses style syrup, vanilla, baking soda and a egg yolk?
You need to go find my photo of the day :o)

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I know you are waiting for pictures of the Christmas tree.
So am I.
Saara and Mika looked at trees on sunday and sorta liked one. But decided to pick it up on monday.
Only there was no tree seller at the spot on monday.
Huh?
Isn't this THE season?
We'll walk over tonight to see if he's back.
Hope he is.
I need to smell that tree in here.
Because that is when the magic arrives.

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So, did you get through all that?
I'm off to bake some more now.
If you happen to be in the neighborhood, do drop by for some coffee/tea/hot chocolate/glogg and something good straight out of the oven.
My door is always open for friends.

Sunday.

It started at 6.30am with Niina crying.
She couldn't move here head.
Her neck muscles were just frozen. And she was in pain. Lots of pain.
So to the ER we went.
We came home with painkillers and hopes that her neck will be back to normal soon.
We've no idea what brought this along.

Poor baby.
She's been all crooked today.
I still have to wake her up for more meds...ugh..

I've spent some time in the kitchen.

I baked two loaves of Christmas bread.

And some yummy sourmilk cake.

I also made something very Christmassy (finnish style):

Rice porridge and raisin soup.
Mmmmm.....

Decorations are ready.
Tree will arrive tomorrow.
Can't wait.

Looks so inviting with all those lights.
And you can really tell we waxed the parquet :o)


Happy third advent sunday everyone.

Phew...

Ignore yesterday's crisis post.
Niina does have her party on thursday at 9am but the class performance is on wednesday.
Yay!

And I've decided to keep this banner for the weekend.
Hope you don't mind that I'm skipping a day, I just like this one :o)

I've been doing Christmas shopping today.
I came home with many many many bags.
I'm happy.

Hoping to buy a tree tomorrow.
Only...we haven't seen any tree sellers yet.
Cross your fingers.

More tomorrow.
Good night.

Augh.

You know the Charlie Brown kind of
AUGH.

The girls have school Christmas parties next Thursday.
At 9am.
Both.at.the.same.time.
In.different.places.

Both have parts in Christmas plays.
Saara's class is putting up a play called "A Moose on the Loose" which looks like good fun. Saara has the part of Bigfoot.
Niina is Mary in the nativity scene.

We have to split up armed with cameras.
I'm so bummed.

You have to be kidding me...

There's a big storm coming tonight.
I see the start of it already...rain... winds picking up..
It's supposed to be a doozie.
Only...
..absolutely no snow.
Now what fun is there in a winter storm if you don't get snow???

And it's time to start looking for the PANIC button.
The dollhouse kit I ordered for Niina hasn't arrived yet.
Which means I'll have no time to build it.
I shudder at the thought that it doesn't arrive in time at all.
I've already had a discussion with Niina that Santa's elves could just look at their list and say that as I'm such a good dollhouse builder, they can just send us the kit instead of the built house.
I'm trying to cover my bases here...

Sewing projects.
Have some of those still do, but I did finish two last night.

I made a totebag and decorated it by using small squares of a Marimekko fabric.
I think I need to stop by the Marimekko store and go check out their scrap box... they sell bits of their fabrics for 50% off, bolt ends etc. I think I need a few of these for myself. In all colors imaginable.
And if you'd like to order one, let me know.

And my snowfolk are ready!

They turned out really cute.
They do need names though... any suggestions?

So where do they reside?
In my downstairs bathroom, LOL!

I had to cheer up the room a bit.
And add some good reading too.

If you enjoy laughs, pick up any book by Gerald Durrell.
And if you haven't checked out Viggo Mortensen's poetry, do so. That man is multi-talented to say the least.
And for giggles I recommend Shel Silverstein's Uncle Shelby's A B Z Book.
There's also a story book, a couple kids' books and crafty fun books.

Have you been checking out the photo-of-the-day advent calendar?

This week is still all crafts, cleaning and decorating.
Next week we move into baking, school parties and wrapping.

What's up with that?

Well I did finish Niina's stocking today.

Some of you might remember her temporary stocking I showed you last year. I didn't plan it as temporary, but she told me last year that she disliked her stocking VERY much. I still think it is pretty, and I'll keep it around if we ever need a guest stocking. I'll just have to take Niina's name off.

And while we are looking at last year's photos, my advent candelabra has died on me.

I know it's a broken bulb or two. It's the type that when one dies they all go out...

So I tried switching a new bulb one by one.

Nothing.

So I took another new bulb and fiddled some more.

Nothing.

Took all the extra bulbs I had and started switching everything.

The end result naturally was that not only do I now not know which bulbs are old and which new, the darned thing still doesn't work.

I guess we need a new one.

Only the ones at the store are kinda boring.

Or not our style.

Wish me luck.

So why is it that when I set up one goal, I do a million other things in between?

Like yesterday.

I needed to dust all the open shelving, and the ones behind glass doors in the kitchen.

I did get it all done, but in between every shelf I cleaned the bathroom, decorated, sewed snow folk...

Then today.

I really need to write my Christmas cards.

Any cards going overseas are late already.

And I need to dust the bookshelf in the livingroom.

What have I done?

Sewed stuff I had no plans to do.

Watched an episode of Six Feet Under I "taped" last night.

Thought of another present I could sew.

That meant digging for fabric pieces in that dreaded basement storage room.

(the one where if I ever get to the very back, I'll probably find Jimmy Hoffa...)

I really need to get to those cards next.

Just don't distract me...ok?

Making progress

It's starting to look nice in my kitchen.
The snow folk are made by me.

Also making progress on these:

Niina's needlepoint stocking. Only needs a little bit of sewing.

More snow folk!
I've had these in the works for a couple years...
They still need details to the coats.
I better get to it.
Off to dig out threads, buttons and bits of felt.

Do I decorate the mini house too?

*grin*

OF COURSE!
This has been fun.
It involved some research though as the house is set in 1940.

Here’s Mary taking a break from cooking to listen to the wireless. She has two grandsons in the war and she worries about them every day.

And a close-up of the paper chain that nearly killed me...LOL.
Chatterbox papers btw ;o)

Everyone is trying to keep spirits up and be in a good holiday cheer. After all, the war will be over come spring. In spite of rations some items can still be found. Mary has received a bottle of whiskey from the local pub owner. He was a great friend of Mary’s late husband and stops by every now and then. (can you tell I like to spin a story?)

A neighbor cut this beautiful tree for Mary. She dug out her heirloom glass baubles to decorate it. Under the tree are presents for the great-grandkids. The bigger ones are getting knitted jumpers, the bear is for the baby. She's also managed to find some chocolates for the children.

They were clever during wartime when it came to decorations. People were asked to bring nature’s ornaments indoors and to add sparkle to them with glue and Epsom salts (glue and no-hole beads work just as well). Mary’s been lucky. She found an orange at the shop. She would have bought them for all the children, but alas it was the last one. So she’s treating herself with the orange and a small chocolate bar.

The mince meat pie looks delicious and I wish you could smell the bread...mmm...

Saving her rations meant that Mary had enough flour, sugar, evaporated milk and eggs to do some Christmas baking. Looks like jam tarts...

Here's a separate photo of the kitchen table just for Suzanne B. :o)

I used cornmeal for the flour.

And look, silverware and napkins in the drawers.

For some reason the green is a bit off, it is a wedgewood green, nice and soft.

The top of the table was oiled with canola oil. I really like the look.