Winter has arrived

It has been unusual warm for this time of the year and we were wondering if we would have a winter at all. But finally we got some snow in Toronto and it has been freezing a few degrees. This weekend the sun was shining and it was the perfect weather for a walk.

Yonge Street

Sunday walk

Do I need to say more?

Sunday treat, nam :)

Juha has been studying for his exams and he still has one week of exams left. Next Friday we will celebrate my birthday with some friends. I have been working a lot lately, both in the pediatric office and the Portuguese restaurant. 

We must admit, we are really enjoying ourselves in Toronto. It's a lovely city!

Timmins

On Boxing Day we flew to Timmins, a city in Northern Ontario and the home town of our dear friends Matt and Renelle. Timmins reminded us of Kauhajoki, a small town with lots of forest and a river flowing through it. The population in Timmins is approximately 45.000 and the main industry is mining. Back in the days a lot of Finnish people moved to Timmins and still there is a huge population of second and third generation Finns. Timmins is also known as the home town of Shania Twain and she even has her own museum there.

We met some lovely people during our week, a lot of Matt's and Renelle's family and friends. Renelle's mom took us one day out for a walk on the trails. It was really cold that day, freezing -26C, but we were used to those temperatures and loved being in the snow. New Years Eve we celebrated with their friends at the French cultural center. The new year started with a 4 km walk home after the party, since there were no cabs available. We had a great week and we are definitely visiting Timmins again in the summer.

A random dog also wanted to be on the picture

The coffee shop at the McIntyre hockey rink

Poutine: French fries with gravy and cheese

Happy New Year 2012!

Canadian Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas, although we were far from our families. On Christmas Eve we were just the two of us. We made rice porridge in the morning and beef roast for dinner. All the shops were open and when we went for a walk, we accidentally found ourselves in some fashion stores and found two more Christmas presents for Juha.

On Christmas Day we packed for Timmins and Eileen picked us up to go to the farm. Kevin's mom had made a lovely dinner, which included a lot of Polish dishes and duck from the farm. We met some great people and went late to bed.