A snowy December

Christmas has been quite amazing in Southern Finland this year. Usually we have to hope for snow and then just be content with a gloomy Christmas without any. This year has been different, we've been lucky to have a white Christmas - there's so much snow that it's like being in Lapland!

Snow and cold means sledding, skiing and ice skating. I haven't had a chance to take the kids ice skating yet but the kids have been sledding and we've all been cross-country skiing. We live near Helsinki and there aren't decent slopes here for downhill skiing, so that will have to wait till we go up North - both the kids love it!

Our 5-yr old son tried cross-country skiing for the first time on the ski tracks a few days ago and now he's trodding along quite nicely. At this stage the progress is quite fast, he's going faster every time and can ski for longer periods.

Today we bought skis for our teenage daughter - who has managed to avoid skiing for a while now because she'd outgrown all her old ones. You can imagine that skiing isn't in the Top 10 of Teenage Things to Do on Your School Holiday! But saying that, after today's 2 hour outing, she seemed to enjoy it and I'm sure we're going back on the tracks on New Years Day.

Happy New Year everyone!