Kakkuparty

 Yesterday we had a cake party with the girls at Elina's house. The idea was to experiment with some new recipes, also with gluten free variations. Some were a success, others... maybe not :D

Alina, Elina and Laura ready to dig in.

 This cake consisted of chocolate, butter and cream :D 

Needless to say, it was rather rich! But oh so good :)

 This was some sort of blueberry crumble pie. Basically blueberries with sugar and a crumbly oat-mixture on the top :) Also good!

 There were also two other cakes, one a carrot one made by Elina for the day before and which we finished after lunch. No pictures, but it was good, of course.

The other was made by Alina, a sort of chocolate cake, but moist :) Also good!

And we come to the winner :D

It was supposed to have the consistency of a cheesecake... It looks more like a plateful of melted ice cream :D

Also, with yoghurt and cream cheese and lemon, it tasted too much like sour milk :/

I don't believe I'll be making that one again...

Family

 As every year, we had a Christmas dinner with my dad's family on the 26th. My aunt raises Leonberger dogs, we used to have one too, years ago. They're huge!

This is me with Late, one of their bigger ones. He's like a bear :)

 Ludi with Late

Jade, my cousin's 10 month old daughter :)

Kisu

Snow :)

Let there be light!

 During dark winters every single ray of sunlight is appreciated (unless you're driving south on an icy road...)

It's so pretty how it turns trees pink :)

 This picture was taken at noon on the shortest day of the year, December 21. For the one hour the sun could be seen from our house it never got higher than the treetops and traveled just a few degrees southward. 

May summer come quickly! :)

 LIGHT

The sun :)

A long dark night

 When you work a morning shift you won't even see the sun at all. It's kind of dark. But we've had a beautiful full moon that brightens up the long nights and makes the world seem almost enchanted. It's really incredible to take a late night walk in a forest covered in snow with moon shadows all over the place, bright stars in the sky and sparkling snow on all the trees :)

And lights! Candles, fireplace, christmas lights... candles make my life happy :)

 moonshine

 snow :)

somebody got us funky neon led lights for the tree outside...

Home for Christmas :)

 I get to be home this Christmas :) At least most of it, after working Christmas Eve. 

They found an interesting tree for us this year... It has a bald spot. A big bald spot. I feel kind of sorry for it :D

The cats like the tree :) Last year our tree dried up way before Christmas since they drank up the water. This year the tree has survived thus far :)