In my last post I started telling the story of the Anderson family. Writing it all down is proving to be an interesting challenge in a pleasant way. First off, everyone has a unique life full of twists and turns, anecdotes and little moments that live on in the memories of family members. But the […]
Recent Posts
In my kitchen in the bleak mid-winter
My kitchen is still full of the remnants of Christmas and New Years. The tree in Finland is traditionally taken down after epiphany and so it will be up for a few more days, perhaps a week. When we put the tree up, our Hugo, who is now a year and a half was in […]
Memories of times passed
The children were all up today earlier than I was. It must be the anticipation and excitement as tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I remember when I was little my stomach almost hurt on Christmas Eve because of the excitement and my appetite was not at it’s best. Christmas is a time of memories of times […]
Being thirteen
Finland is full of Christmas parties or as they call them, pikkujoulu. Our children love organizing a pikkujoulu and last night we had a houseful of thirteen year-olds. Watching your own children grow up often brings me back to when I was the same age. There is something a bit beautiful and at the same […]
Eighteen days until Christmas
There are eighteen days until Christmas if you ask the Finnish kids and if you ask the American kids there are still nineteen days. Today in the kids’ entryway where the calendar is on the wall, there was a little spat between two of the girls. One claimed that there are eighteen days and the […]
Ihme
The Christmas season is almost here. It is nearly pitch dark here at quarter after four in the afternoon and across the fields and on the road there is just the lighest dusting of snow barely making the gravel look white. The other Saturday after the sun had set, my friend Kaisa Peni released her […]
All my little pumpkins
I had been waiting for the right opportunity. And it just so happened that all of the pieces fell into place the other weekend. The light was right, it was not raining, the kids were all home and not at school since it was Saturday and as an extra added bonus there was a little […]
The Tiger and the Superhero Princess
Have you every gone shopping with a tiger and a superhero princess? I have, and let me tell you it was a one-of-a-kind experience. We had driven to Kouvola, about ten minutes away and parked our car on a lot that is on the roof of the shopping center. We had several errands, an eye […]
A treasure hunt in the forest
Today is the perfect type of day to write a blog. In my room that has the computer, the blinds have been pulled up completely letting in the soft light of late October. Today is a rainy, windy and gray day and although I prefer to spend some time outside everyday, it is not especially […]
Searching for the mythical characters of Kalevala
I’ve come to realize how much our history and maybe more specifically language has an impact on whole nations of people and the way we think. As a kid, I often heard it said that language defines a culture. I really did not understand the concept at the time. It was not until later that […]
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