Since we were traveling to CA for the holidays and would miss Christmas with our family and friends here, we hosted a "pikkujoulu" ("Little Christmas") party here in mid-December. Due to the short days in December, the "pikkujoulu" is a popular tradition in Finland. It seems that EVERYONE has one so that they can celebrate with all their friends before the real Christmas (which is usually spent with family) and so that they can make the darkness a little more tolerable.
For those of you who aren't aware, the winter days in Finland are quite short, especially leading up to the winter solstice on December 21 (the shortest day of the year). Around that time, the sun rose around 10:30 am and set around 3:30pm. Even in the middle of the day, though, the actual light isn't that bright. So it's more like dusk for those 6 or so hours of light. So you can see why Finns use the opportunity to create cheer- so they can keep going through that somewhat dreary period!
So here are some photos of our party. We had some of my friends from Finnish class, Matt's sisters and their significant others and our niece. So here are the family pics first...
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