christmas post #1

Here are a few pictures from my trip home. I didn't always have my camera with me so some of these pictures are borrowed from others or are from my cell phone.

I took a few of my nieces and nephews to the store before Christmas and let them pick some yarn for scarves.

I think the selling point for this yarn was that it was "sparkly" (it's not visible in this picture but there is some silver in there).

This one was "aquamarine" and was definitely the softest yarn.

We decorated some ornaments...

Didn't they do a great job?

We had our first real tree in a long, long time (I don't think we've ever had one in my lifetime).

We woke up to this on Christmas morning:

I think the largest drift I walked through was up to my knees.

I found the pickle...

...and went sledding!

Mom - those are the gloves that I was telling you about. Oh! I think I just remembered where I put them...I'll call you tomorrow.

Pulla

Our YSA advisors told us today that they were going to make Pulla for all of us and bring it by tonight. I was rather excited about that and they told me to explain what it was to everyone else. My first thought was "think about heaven..." but I just said it's kind of like a cinnamon roll with cardamom instead of cinnamon. My teacher explained it better than I could. They did indeed bring it by tonight and it was awesome!

Wikipedia says this about Pulla:

Pulla (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈpulːɑ]) is a mildly-sweet Finnish dessert bread flavored with crushed cardamom seeds and occasionally raisins or sliced almonds. Braid loaves (pitko) are formed from three or more braided strands of dough. The braids may also be formed into a ring. Other types of pulla include small round ones that resemble English scones but have a sugar and butter topping, and larger cinnamon roll buns called korvapuusti. The outside typically has a shiny brown glaze, formed by a coating of egg white, milk or a mixture of sugar and brewed coffee.

Pulla is typically served in thin slices with coffee or at special occasions
Pulla is also common in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Northern Ontario, areas in the United States and Canada which have large Finnish populations. It is also commonly known as nisu, which is the old Finnish word for the same that is still used in some regional dialects, despite originally meaning "wheat."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulla
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I believe that 'nisu' also means wheat in Estonian.

I guess they left the glaze with brewed coffee out.

I enjoyed visiting Finland. I wouldn't mind living there for a couple of years - or in Sweden or Estonia.

I forgot until today that I ate reindeer in Finland (thanks for sharing, Nae). It wasn't my favorite meat ever but not bad.

stalking santa

Stalking Santa is one of my favorite movies because it makes me laugh. Actually, it makes me laugh a lot.

It is a Christmas favorite of mine now. I just need to remember to bring it home with me this year so we can all watch it...

And for those of you who read the NieNie Dialogues, Stephanie's brother is the main character in this movie.

...[not] all [gingerbread] men are created equal

These gingerbread men are better than others:

My stake puts on a Christmas festival which is fantastic. Christmas trees, nativities, quilts, a live nativity, family photos, an excellent choir/orchestra concert, and gingerbread men! If you are ever planning on coming to visit me, come the 2nd weekend of December and I'll take you. It's honestly one of my favorite parts of living here. Plus, one of my co-workers came this year!
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My co-worker, Claire, brought some wassail to work the other day. It was amazing. She gave me the recipe and I made some for a YSA activity last night. Mine wasn't quite as amazing but it was still good.

She said I could share the recipe:

20 cups water
5 sticks cinnamon
1 tsp whole cloves
1 whole nutmeg
Boil 10 min.
Add: Juice of 6 fresh lemons & 6 fresh oranges
3 cups sugar

She said you can also use orange juice (the Simply Orange brand - with pulp) instead of fresh juice. That's what I used to save time and maybe that's why it wasn't as good...
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My roommate and I opened Christmas presents tonight and here is what I got:



Haha..Zac Efron.

I am very excited about the Brandon Heath cd :)
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My manager shared a Charles Dickens quote with us yesterday and I looked it up online. Here is the extended version:



And numerous indeed are the hearts to which Christmas brings a brief season of happiness and enjoyment. How many families whose members have been dispersed and scattered far and wide, in the restless struggles of life, are then re-united, and meet once again in that happy state of companionship and mutual good-will, which is a source of such pure and unalloyed delight, and one so incompatible with the cares and sorrows of the world, that the religious belief of the most civilized nations, and the rude traditions of the roughest savages, alike number it among the first joys of a future state of existence, provided for the blest and happy! How many old recollections, and how many dormant sympathies, does Christmas time awaken !



We write these words now, many miles distant from the spot at which, year after year, we met on that day, a merry and joyous circle. Many of the hearts that throb so gaily then, have ceased to beat; many of the looks that shone so brightly then, have ceased to glow ; the hands we grasped, have grown cold; the eyes we sought, have hid their lustre in the grave ; and yet the old house, the room, the merry voices and smiling faces, the jest, the laugh, the most minute and trivial circumstance connected with those happy meetings, crowd upon our mind at each recurrence of the season, as if the last assemblage had been but yesterday. Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days, that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fireside and his quiet home!

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_Christmas_(Dickens)

Now it's time to go drink some wassail....

santa tracker

I should probably post this closer to Christmas Eve but since I'm thinking about it now I'll go ahead and post it.

We were talking about Christmas traditions at work today and I remembered that we'd sometimes check the news on Christmas Eve to see where Santa was. If I remember right, they'd show his location during the weather segment. Does anyone else remember this?

Anyway, technology has come a long way and a few years ago I found this website.

I think that it has some stuff on the main website for tracking but I usually use it with Google Earth. It will show Santa flying from city to city (I can't remember how often it refreshes) and in some of the larger cities, it shows "videos" of Santa. I'm not gonna lie - I'm fascinated by the Santa Tracker. Pretty sad, huh? I probably have better things to do with my time (for example, I should be going to bed right now) but I like to see if they show my favorite cities along his route. My nieces and nephews enjoy it, too.

I have been exploring the website tonight and they have some information about Santa and some FAQs which are somewhat amusing. The climb speed for the sleigh? One "T" (Twinkle of an eye).

I thought that this was nice:
How many people support this effort, and are they active duty military personnel?
One Department of Defense (DOD) Civilian from the NORAD Public Affairs staff is assigned to manage the program. In addition, almost 1,250 Canadian and American uniformed personnel – Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marines, as well as DOD civilian and their families and friends – volunteer their time on Christmas Eve to answer the thousands of phone calls and emails that flood in from around the world.

They also have an explanation as to why they started tracking Santa.

Only 20 days, 4 hours, 48 minutes, and 26 seconds until they start tracking Santa this year. Yes, I am excited and now you know how I'll be spending part of my Christmas Eve!

2009 christmas tree

I decided to go with a smaller tree this year:

Here's one of the ornaments that my roommate bought:

I think it's a cute one.

sorry alabama fans...

...but Tim Tebow is one of the best football players I have ever seen. This afternoon, I tried watching the Florida/FSU, KU/MU, and BYU/Utah games at the same time. Granted, I couldn't technically "watch" the BYU game but was trying to keep track of it on Gamecast. The Florida game was long over in terms of points (Florida was up by a lot) but I kept watching it just to see Tim Tebow play. I'll be happy if Alabama wins and all but, I still think Tim Tebow is a great player.

Luckily, BYU won. KU had a tough time today.

The picture from the last post is from the botanical gardens in my city (well, the neighboring city). I thought for sure someone would recognize it...oh well.

And now, I had better start working on that Sunday School lesson that I keep putting off. If anyone would like to teach it for me, just let me know. Please?

where is it?

this might be an easy one...

downtown

I said last week that I'd post some pictures from downtown last Sunday. I've been on a couple of "ghost" or "spirit" tours downtown. One of the local shop owners leads them and tells a little bit of history of the city and some ghost stories. I tend to take the stories with a grain of salt but, it turns out there really are ghosts! I was just sitting on the bleachers, minding my own business...



Most of these pictures come from my friends' cameras:



We had a lot of fun trying to figure out the "ghost" effect.

life is good - answer

Okay, so I intentionally did not post a picture that had me in the picture with the "life is good" graffiti - that would have taken all the fun out of it.

Nathan, I think you win this one. It was actually in Tallinn, Estonia. Kiersten - planet earth was a good guess - you technically win this one, too :)

I spent 6 or 7 months of my mission in Tallinn. I was there my first transfer and then my last 4 transfers. I love that city. I probably have 500 pictures or so from Tallinn but, I picked about 30 so you would not have to look at all of them.




There was some graffiti in Daugavpils, Latvia that said "Love your close ones/loved ones" I should have taken a picture of that. We always thought it was amusing.