Happy New Year

New Year's Eve. We had a pretty light day with family. We took the kids to a local soccer field to go ice skating. (Not sure whether it's accurate that the soccer fields double as hockey rinks or vice versa. I suspect the latter).

We were accompanied by Uncle Charles and quasi-cousin Emma who hasn't left Tess's side despite the fact that they don't have a common language between them.

After trying skating and sledding, we settled into dinner where your narrator was firmly corrected when he referred to the entree as "Swedish" meatballs. They were, in fact, Finnish meatballs. Possibly someone can explain the distinction to me later.

After dark, which came quite early, we set out to divest ourselves of the days fireworks acquisitions. Much joy was had.

We finished with a Finnish New Year's tradition of melting tin. Everyone in the family melted 2 small tin horseshoes that we'd purchased for this occasion. We then poured the melted mixture into water. The resulting shape signifies your fate in the coming year.

I truly thought that mine looked like a motorcycle but every woman in the room promptly and assertively corrected me.

Tess says that hers looked like a piece of melted tin with lots of holes. I sense that she will have a very literal year in 2010.