YAY!!! I finally got my photos to download :) My goal this year is to have more posts than 2009... a pathetic amount of three. Count them... 1, 2, 3. Such is life and we must move on. I promise 2010 will be better than 2009 for my blogging abilities.

So, blogging isn't as easy as I thought it would be. It takes a lot of dedication and time. It is now February 10th and my last post was sometime in December of 2009. Now, I do have somewhat of a good excuse for not writing, would you like to hear it? I have a bunch of pictures I want to upload, but for some reason my cable isn't working on my camera. So alas... I have put it off. Why put off tomorrow what you can put off today :)

At the end of October I surprised my hubby with a trip to Boston. It has been on our list of places to see, plus there was a special GUSTER concert on. Our first stop after arriving... Samuel Adams Brewery. Honestly, one of the best tours I have been on... and I'm not just talking about the fact that we got free beer- though, it was quite delicious! The philosophy of the company shows in the quality of their beer. Samuel Adams will buy back any of their beer that has expired from their distributers; that way, their distributers do not lose money, nor do they have to sell a great beer that has gone bad. What do they do with that beer you may ask??? The owner, Jim Koch, has a year end party with company executives in a tropical location, then he fills a dunk tank full of the expired beer and they get to dunk him in it! Jim said that he would rather be in bad beer than have bad beer in his customers.
We got to Sample to Boston Lager, Brickyard Ale and Oktoberfest. By far the Winter Ale (Samuel Adams Seasonal) is my favourite :)

On Christmas Day, the sun was hitting the fire place just right. So naturally, I took out my Cannon and had fun playing around with the light and shadows. Here is a look at my spontaneous photo shoot of self portraits. As always, enjoy :)

Here is a look at my mom's yard in the winter time. These were taken Christmas Day. The sky was so blue and the sun was nice and bright. Thought you would all enjoy seeing what I see most mornings :)

Another tradition I have at Christmas is making Lihapiirakka. Little deep fired meat/rice pies, made in a sweet dough. Since I got home from London/St.Thomas (ont) too close to Christmas, I never had time to make these tasty treats. So I thought it would be fun to teach my nieces Airyana and Marissa how to make them. I also invited my friend Leanne and her daughter Kelti over to join in the festivities. It is quite a long process, as the dough has to rise twice. Here is a look at our adventure:




Marissa kneaded the dough.

Airyana giving it a try.

As always, Kelti gives me that look, "You want me to do what?"

Me and my girlies!!

While the dough was rising, we went out sledding down my mom’s driveway. I haven’t had so much fun… I was giggling so hard. Again, it brought back memories of going sliding with Holly and Jeff. We used to pretend we were in the Olympics, racing down the hill… be cautious of “corner 13”, which caused my slight concussion in ’96. It was fun watching the kids going down the hill, crashing into the snow banks. At one point, we thought we would all try to stack onto the Snow surfer. All 5 of us! When we took off, Rissa and Airy fell off right away, as Leanne, Kelti and I headed down the hill. I was laughing so hard, my stomach hurt. Sometimes it feels great to be a kid again. Afterwards, the 3 kids piled on the sled and I pushed them down the hill, in hopes of making them hit the jump- hee hee. Here is a look at their sliding escapades. (Photos taken by Leanne).




This picture was actually taken the next day with my NEW digital camera :)



HERE WE GO....

Love the faces in these photos- classic!


After we prepared the Lihapiirakka, we had to let them rise one more time. While waiting for them, we headed over to Edie Täti’s for the traditional Boxing Day Dinner. When my Grandmother was alive, she would have loads of family and friends visit on the 26th. Edie thought it would be fun to carry on the yearly event. I have always enjoyed Boxing Day over there because it gives me a chance to see my cousins from out of town and other family members I don’t see all the time. I also enjoy hearing the stories about my dad. Lately I have been really wishing I knew my dad better. He passed away when I was 9 years old and I always knew him as “My daddy the hero”. As I get older, I really wish I had the chance to know my dad, the adult… So family gatherings always give me glimpses of what my dad was like as a man. I really cherish hearing my family talk about him. Especially the stories of when he was a young teenager getting into mischief with his siblings. Of course at every family event, Edie busts out the camera, which causes Uncle Dan to bring out his camera…. So naturally, I had to get my camera to capture what I love about my family. These pictures probably won’t make sense to most… but I took them for Holly and Jeff so they can see what they are missing and maybe they will make their way over here for Christmas one year.
It was also fun having Leanne and Kelti over to experience a family gathering at the Repo house… and I got to show them the fabulous Bubble light


Cutting circles out of the dough



The filling



Uncle Dan taking a picture of....

the typical candid shot of the people on Edie's couch....

Edie taking a picture of Danny taking a picture.... gotta love my family!
Me and "Ed"- I love my aunt, she is loads of fun and has taught me a lot about being finn!

A look at the blue bubble light... maybe you have to see it in person to understand why it is that cool!


Once we returned home, we finished our all day project. Here are some pictures of the final product.
Thanks to Leanne and Kelti for spending the day with us! And thanks to Rissa & Airy for letting Amy Täti teach you some of my favourite Finnish/Christmas traditions.



Oh so yummy!!!