191: Winter, Christmas lights, Gingerbread

Taken somewhere near Helsinki Cultural Centre, after watching a dance competition. The snow, the darkness and the unintentional street light shining on it made it look so beautiful.

Tried to make kuih gulung but dunno why the coconut filling was too dry.

Joined the hundreds of people to witness the opening of Christmas lights at Senate Square. That's the Christmas tree for the square, before the lighting.

And this is after. Nothing extravagant. Just some lights on the tree.

As well as the streets; nothing big. Finland is a very modest nation.

One of the smaller roads perpendicular to the main street of Aleksanterinkatu.

A close up of Santa's carolers together with the 3 Kings who followed the North Star to find baby Jesus. We didn't know the significance of the lion and bunny, though.

-12°C, the sun shone brightly and it was a beautiful day. Just the day before, we had a snow storm.

At sunset (about 4pm). Beautiful night sky. 7am also paints dark blue in the sky.

Gingerbread men, angels, snowmen, reindeers, stars, moons, candles, mistletoes, Christmas trees, candy canes, teddies...and a Homer.

Vihti Ski Centre, -13°C. Eliel continued to learn how to snowboard and Helmi went downhill skiing. I froze my toes and fingers, nose felt like it was going to fall off and I couldn't feel my face. This was when I literally felt we are living in a freezer.

Nevertheless, the weather has made it all very exciting for me. The snow really defines the season as it creates so many activities, like, shoveling, scraping of ice and snow on your windshields, getting your car stuck in it while you're driving, turn into ice on the roads and skid your wheels and also your shoes so you can fall on your bum, and blowing you away during its very mild snow storm. Really, it's mild.

Oh, but of course, there's the more fun activities like skating, skiing, snowboarding and sledding. Something you need 3-4 layers of clothes top and bottom and your hands and feet.

But not really, I'm just kidding =) Still, winter's quite fun. So far.