hmm, here's a novelty. a purely written post. the weather in finland has been decidedly horrible the past month or two. winter was off to a promising start with the first snow on october 21st followed by a few weeks of good snow coverage. then, in mid-november, something changed and everything melted and we were cursed with about 5 weeks of cold, grey raining weather that never went below freezing. the sky is always overcast, a good day is when the sky has a muddled blue/grey overcast sheen instead of pure off-white/depressing grey. oh, the sun rises around 9:00 and sets at about 2pm. very uplifting

i like winter and i like snow, but i absolutely hate RAIN in DECEMBER. it just feels perverse. but, a couple nights ago we had some snow and today is one of the first days it's been below zero (celsius) in a while. so, if we're lucky the snow will stay around here and we'll have a white christmas. for christmas matti, kaitlin and i are taking the train down to vantaa (suburb of helsinki) where minna and big matti (aunt and uncle) live. mom and dad will arrive in vantaa around midnight on christmas eve and then we'll get to have christmas together. matti and i, unfortunately, will only get to see mom and dad for a couple of days because on the 27th we take the train to kuopio where we will have a JOB (gasp!). i know, you think it's not possible, but we will actually work for two weeks even though we are free loading half-breed foreigners. we'll be working at a husky farm taking care of sled dogs that russian tourists fork over money to see... i just hope there's no baby-talking to dogs involved (i can't stand that). but yeah, matti got us this job through his army doggie connections so we can make some money during the finnish winter.
so, i hope all's well with you as this christmas season continues

note: if all you atheists, agnostics, muslims, jews, buddhists, animists, and other non-christmas celebrating people are offended by my numerous references to christmas i guess you're going to have live with it. i claim no responsibility for any emotional suffering, depression or overall feelings of marginalization or oppression that may be triggered by the word 'christmas.' i'm just happy that i don't live in the states where i might have to face penalties for my WASPy bias

PIKKU JOULU GALA - that's right, last friday we had a large pikkujoulu (lit. 'little christmas') party. pikkujoulus are very popular in finland (as christmas parties are in the states). ours was a 'formal' gala. we continued a tradition started by a couple of our friends a few years ago, apparently this was the fourth or fifth gala. we prepared for the party by having fish filets, cheese and crackers, chips, ginger bread, glogi (traditional nordic mulled wine), and homebrew (of course). we also went to the library and picked up a lot of older finnish music to provide a proper atmosphere. we had finnish tango (think argentine, but depressed and slower), waltz, and then some american swing music. after all 16 guests had arrived (yeah, apparently we've made some friends) there was a lot of eating, drinking and dancing. not many of my pictures turned out because of our lighting situation. we had no bright lights, all was light yellow or red tinted (via candles and lampshades). overall the ambience was very nice and adam and paul were pleased that we kept up the tradition. dressing up is a lot of fun in my opinion, i was able to rustle up a 3-piece grey pinstriped suit and a nice hat to go along with it. thrift stores are great...

thanksgiving was quite an affair here. matti, kaitlin, kochun, jenni and i made our own thanksgiving feast. we made our own turkey (brined it overnight and then popped it in the oven, done to perfection!), cornbread, stuffing, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple crisp and we had red wine and homebrew. it was a wonderful meal and especially fulfilling because we made EVERYTHING from scratch. i was particularly excited about making our own cranberry sauce (a little sweet but with a great tart taste as well).
we had round one, rested a bit, played some cards and then had round two and finished off with dessert. too bad we missed the football game... (i lost a lot of sleep over that)

i haven't written in a little while. it's not that i've been busy, i've just been a bit lazy. so, here are a few quick updates of some fairly notable events in the last month or so.....