This winter

has been really strange. The snow came down early, it didn't melt away and we actually had cold weather in south as well. Usually the snow comes down around Xmas, it melts away and comes back, melts away and comes back aka it is not that cold in the south. I remember few years back we didn't have any snow in January, I also remember few black Christmases (in south). Up north where my sister lives there has been a white Christmas always.

No in February should be very very cold... Well it is not very cold. At the moment it is +2C. There is an old saying that says that the coldest time of the year is February. So we will see if the time has changed or will be get the really really cold weather here. Now I don't mind that it is not that cold as my car will use less gas the warmer it is. So the colder it gets the more it uses.

Usually I spent the Xmas with my sister (and her family), but this year I had decided to spent the time with my brother (and his family). Due to this decision my plans were a bit different. Instead of staying up north after my nephews Bday, I drove back home (sick) via granny's place. I have to say that the Xmas was not what we had planned. My brothers home burned down (they lost 90% of their belongings) a week before Xmas. They had luck, as they hadn't been able to sell their old place. So after spending few nights in a hotel, they were given a permission to move back to their old home.

Most of my sister-in-laws friends gave them furniture and clothes (toys for children). I didn't have that much extra stuff (still have one empty room and missing other stuff as well) so I didn't give them that much. When my sister-in-law said that they wouldn't have a Christmas this year, I said not to worry about it. So I made it my mission to make them have as normal Christmas as I knew. (My Xmasses has never been too normal, expect when I was little girl... Well does it count if we had two Santa's?) So I baked some Christmas pastries and took the bakeings that I had made with my granny. Christmas Eve my brother et al left to eat with friends and I came to open up the (fake) tree and decorate it. It took a bit longer than I had hoped for, but I managed to do so before they got home. Then I pretended that I had just arrived before them :))

They still haven't been able to move back (and won't be any time soon), but the normal life is almost up to speed. If anyone of you have had similar experience then you know that even though the life seems normal, what is inside your head is not. It takes time to recover.

So as I said, this winter has not been normal.