I'm dreaming of a white christmas...

And i certainly got one! Plenty of snow around, a real winter wonderland.
On christmas eve (which is when they celebrate christmas here) we didn't overly exert ourselves during the day :p i've taught juuso to play three blind mice (the card game) so played more than enough of that. Ate the last salmiakki from my christmas calendar! Then in the evening we went to an old farm (that's still a working farm) where they put on a huge traditional christmas feast just for us (and a couple of other people). There were salads, breads, riisipiirakka, salmon prepared 3 different ways, ham for those who like it prepared 2 different ways, and "boxes" which are like a casserole type thing maybe. One was basically mashed carrot, another mashed swede and the third a chopped cabbage and carrot ensemble. And they were actually tasty! I must admit i wasn't particularly excited about christmas food from what i remembered from last time but everything was delicious - or interesting enough to not be offputting... tried some strange fish thing that was good but i wouldn't want to eat too much of it. For pudding we had luumuvahva - a creamy plum pudding. And to drink there was home made non-alcoholic beer that reminded me a little of weak ginger beer. As we were leaving we signed the visitors book and the lady working there told our future/a bit about our personalities from our signatures and handwriting! I forget most of what she said about mine (plus she said it all in finnish so i probably deciphered my own unique version in the first place), something maybe about me liking things just so...
Then it was home to discover joulupukki had visited and left pressies under the fazer-joulukuusi (that i made outta chocolate box rubbish :p). I got a silver suomenleijona (finnish lion) necklace from the nokelas on a beautiful thick chain. Think they all liked their gifts from me. The t-shirt for peppi was way too big but works well as a night gown and the mirror hadn't broken on its travels so i was stoked!
On christmas day proper nothing special happens here. We tried to go ice skating (at least i think we did) but that didn't work out so we went and found a little hill by the skifield to sled down for a wee while which was fun. I thought so at least!! and i'm sure peppi did too. There was snow all around and even some blue sky to be seen, even if it was still a little hazy and the sun was already below the hill (at 1.30 in the afternoon). Couldn't supress singing a few lines from some wintery christmas carols.
Spent much of the rest of the day walking to and from the main hotel with Juuso for various things (some of you may find out why later... mystery, intrigue, suspense!) then in the evening we went bowling again. The first game I played in my usual manner, but the second one (which we didn't get to finish unfortunately as time ran out) surpassed my greatest expectations! Somehow i managed to get 94 points out of 9 turns - may well have got over a hundred if we'd finished, for the first time ever i think. Wasn't to be.
This morning we packed up and headed back to joensuu. Arto said we were to leave at 9am and would you believe we were on the road by 8.50 - that just ain't right! The sun was not fully up when we left and i was struck by how all the colour had seemingly been sucked out of the landscape - black trees covered in white snow, grey sky and snow on the ground. It was beautiful but like i'd got colourblind blinkers on of some sort! Some colour did leak back in as it lightened up, but it certainly makes the brightly painted wooden barns and houses stand out when you see them. Saw the cutest little yellow wooden church in the woods just off the road, wish i'd had a camera at the ready.
We arrived back in Joensuu to be greeted by about a foot of fresh snow on the driveway that the "boys" spent half an hour or so clearing before the car could make it to the garage while we traipsed back and forth with the luggage. Then it was baked salmon straight from a norwegian fjord for lunch, with salad, rice and... kermaviili!! No way would i not be pescatarian right now - Delish!