One of my favorite christmas traditions: making the perennial holiday favorite karjalanpiirakkas with my pops (klingon-esque finnish pastries). We don our favorite aprons, set up our flour and folding stations and have at the endless rolls of rye dough, stuffing each soon-to-be pastry with riisi. Over the years, we've each developed our own styles - my dad's piirakkas tend to look more like the traditional wide and flat pastries while mine...I like to call 'mountainous.' We always put on a quality movie to watch while toiling away (past favorites include the classics Crocodile Dundee and Overboard-we have a soft spot for 80s movies TBS airs on loop)*If you haven't seen either of these two movies go out and rent them immediately. This year my dad surprised me with something a bit more modern, 2004's blockbuster extraordinaire Hidalgo. Viggo Mortensen is no Goldie Hawn, but I'm sucker for a good underdog story.