One of my favorite holidays

This past weekend was Finnish Independence Day and the weekend the local Finnish heritage group chose to celebrate Pikkujoulu (Little Christmas) (usually it is celebrated at the beginning of Advent, which I've lost track of).

I just did a bit of web-research. Apparently in Finland, the celebrations usually involve rather a lot of alcohol. We just had non-alcoholic Glugg. (I don't have the proper vowel to spell that correctly.)

There was much Finnish food, some of which I'd never tasted before. The amount of gravlax I ate was probably worth the price of admission right there... (One salad caused my brother to comment "who knew cilantro was Finnish?"). For my part, who knew whipped rutabaga could taste so good?

We're a poorly organized family (well actually, we're just still used to my dad being the one with the camera) and completely neglected to get pictures of my niece or any of the rest of us.