Picnic on the lake, and a birthday

What a good time to celebrate my 74th birthday. We are having great weather. We have family visiting. Young children are always suitably impressed and excited about a birthday, even if it isn't theirs.
Jan and I started the day with morning tea sitting outside, on the south side of the house, watching the birds. We were well wrapped up because it was minus 7°C, but it was still very pleasant to be sitting in the bright sun (extra).
There was (of course) a short sledging session and then we went off for a walk, down to, and onto, the big lake. There was a small picnic sitting on the ice in the bright sun, on the tracks left by the snowmobiles.  The kids did really well, walking almost all the way themselves.
After another snack and some rest we were out on another walk, this time into the forest. We saw a lot of tracks including lynx, fox and elk.
The walk ended on a hilltop where three elk had slept a night, leaving indentations in the snow. Elk poo, about the size of marbles and mostly dry fibre, always seems to fascinate kids and today was no exception. A few bits were carried home in pockets and back in the UK I'm sure a couple of classrooms will have a new addition to their nature table!
The high point of the walk was Eleanor spotting a big elk down in the valley below us. It wandered across the valley bottom and into the trees on the opposite side of the valley. Everyone was suitably excited, even us because we don't see elk so often.
It was starting to get dark so we marched homeward through the snowy forest. Each parent had a child on their shoulders, which is another variation of the white gym (extra)!
Through the evening I opened presents, got phone calls, received hand-drawn cards from the children and ate dinner. Jan had prepared the cake, a plateful of traditional semlor (Swedish almond paste cream buns) decorated with animal candles, turned into a piece of culinary art!
All -in-all a brilliant day with much to be grateful for!