Freezing cold Finland

Our last days here in Finland now. It has got really cold these last days. Today it was -23.
Yesterday we went out sledding and managed to do it for an hour or so with the help of the hot chocolate and warm coffee that my friend brought in a thermos.

It's really cold and very beautiful. Today we went to our friend's house and after that I took a short walk with Carlotta, but couldn't resist long as our faces and fingers were aching from the cold.

Before these extremely cold days we went to my sister and Carlotta had a nice ride with her Shetland pony Perfecta. Just in time before it got too cold!

Two days ago we went to see the beach were we go in summer. Now it looked quite different!

 

Yesterday I went out with my sister's daughter. It has become a tradition for us to go out for dinner and this time we also went to the cinema to see a Finnish film "Nuotin vierestä" which happened to have been filmed in my home town, Kotka. It has been a nice and relaxing winter holiday for us here in Finland.

Snowing in Finland

The day after new year's day when we woke up it was snowing! I woke up Carlotta telling her that and she got up faster than ever, put on her clothes and went out. After breakfast I took a walk out with the girls and my mother. They took their sledges to the nearby wood, but the the very thin layer of snow wasn't quite enough for sledding. Anyway everything looks white and beautiful now. It's very cold, too, about -15 centigrades, so quite a short walk was enough for today.

After lunch me and the girls went to Kotka to do some shopping and had a coffee. It's so beautiful out there now.

Good ending and Happy New Year!

This year the manly half of the family stayed in Rome and the other half of the family went to Finland to start the new year.
Me, Sofia and Carlotta arrived to Finland on the 28th in the evening.
On new year's eve we were invited to our friends in Espoo, so in the afternoon we went there and slept over at their house.
We had a really nice evening at their house. We took a walk with their dog, ate a very good meal, played a fun game and watched the fireworks.

The next day we woke up slowly, had brunch and then we went to my brother's house. Their boys hadn't woken up yet after their late nights out. The days are short here, so we drove home when it was dark already. Luckily the weather was really good. It's quite cold, but there is only a very thin layer of snow to lighten up everything.