leonia wrote:
Hello Olga, the pictures are so nice! and I agree to you: I thought the same, they must be siblings. Otherwise they would see each other as rivals. May be in their first year they can stay together, but I think later on they will divide.
To whom have you written your Christmas gift list? Who is bringing the Christmas gifts in Finland?
I have written to 'joulupukki'! Before Christmas I will have a new camera! If I do not get as present, I'll buy it on my own, but it will be from 'joulupukki'!
It's a long story 'what is the Finnish 'father Christmas'!!
He lives in Lapland in a 'mountain' named Korvatunturi! Our Chrismas time tradition is a mixture of old stories and religous legends and folklore - and religion, Christianity at same time. Everyone 'believes' somehow in the 'father Christmas'
I picked a little piece from wiki:
..In other countries, the figure of Saint Nicholas was also blended with local folklore. As an example of the still surviving pagan imagery, in Nordic countries the original bringer of gifts at Christmas time was the Yule Goat( joulu-pukki ), a somewhat startling figure with horns. ( 
)
In the 1840s however, an elf in Nordic folklore called "Tomte" or "Nisse" started to deliver the Christmas presents in Denmark. The Tomte was portrayed as a short, bearded man dressed in gray clothes and a red hat. This new version of the age-old folkloric creature was obviously inspired by the Santa Claus traditions that were now spreading to Scandinavia. By the end of the 19th century this tradition had also spread to Norway and Sweden, replacing the Yule Goat. The same thing happened in Finland, but there the more human figure retained the Yule Goat name. But even though the tradition of the Yule Goat as a bringer of presents is now all but extinct, a straw goat is still a common Christmas decoration in all of Scandinavia.
Joulupukki:
There he lives!
Ha ha, Olga, you are keeping not only a restaurant for squirrels, but a school as well! 
Of course it is interesting to know news from Russia! I have not yet heard how are our Hedgehogs and Badgers for the moment, but here squirrels have been changing their color.. Well, perhaps the younger ones are a bit brownish still.
