While not quite done and dusted, as we have a few things for real Christmas at home, last night we spent several hours celebrating with my wife's family in the city.
Now that their older children are out of the house, they moved from a standalone to an apartment in the city and renovated it last year. It is an old building and they have done a really nice job of it - nice enough to get featured in a magazine, though it does come at a cost. My wife's brother-in-law is a specialist doctor in a field that has short supply and spends a lot of time on call and missing many events, including most Christmases. He almost missed this one too due to an emergency with a young child, but circumstances changed and he was able to come back from the hospital.
The main thing about Christmas is spending time with people you care about and the food.
Not necessarily in that order.
My sister-in-law likes to make an effort with the preparations and decorations and Christmas is always a very pretty event at their place, and the starters were decent - and alcohol-free.
It was an out of the bottle, sparkling, Glögi wine with fresh rosemary and lingonberries on ice and was a great way to start the festivities.
Then it was on to the main event.
It is traditional to have several fish dishes and since there isn't too much variety in Finland, there was a lot of salmon. Various smoked varieties and then some in cream to go atop the homemade saaristolaisleipä my mother-in-law made. They also smoked the fish themselves, which is common here.
Then the main, main event - the ham. Homemade mustard to boot. Christmas ham is always good and I don't understand why people don't eat it all year round, as it is pretty easy to cook (take a long time though) and is great! Perhaps having it only once a year is enough for most people though, especially since it normally gets eaten for several days in a row.
And for dessert this year, my wife made a gluten-free (the gingerbread was not gluten-free in most of them other than those who needed it), lactose-free, chocolate mousse, with cream and curd, which gave it both a sweet and tart flavor. It was pretty decent and after all of the other food, was enough to satisfy, especially since there is now (after I successfully introduced it last year) a cheese platter to come with the coffee.
I have no pictures of this though.
As said, the house is quite pretty, so I thought I would add a few random images that don't focus on the food, because there were other things too. Not that I know what most of that is, as Christmas is a time that I barely speak, as very few people speak (or want to speak) English with me, so I generally just enjoy sitting their quietly observing.
The Christmas tree is one taken from a local forest, which they paid for, but it was coming from one of the kid's friend's property. And, despite their very high ceilings, they have a roof-scraping star also.
And of course, there was the present time, which this year was a secret Santa for the adults, so we each got one gift, whilst the children got "more than one" and had fun opening them up and seeing what they got. Smallsteps wrote a wish list and got most of what she wanted, which was hair ties, woolen bunny socks with ears and a few dresses for preschool. She isn't overly demanding with the resents yet, and pretty much only asks for things that she feels she needs.
Her favorite was the socks. Mummi made them.
It lasted longer than it used to last, again something that was introduced when we hosted. Spreading things out a bit more, talking more (not me), spending more time relaxing. Then the night was over and we headed home.
But, we left a few presents under our tree for Smallsteps to open today, and she could choose to open one last night too. As said, she is not very demanding on the presents and she is always really happy with whatever she gets, whatever it is. I am guessing that this phase isn't going to last that long and in the next few years she will be asking more for what she wants, than what she needs.
So, that is Christmas for the time being and now I am going to take Smallsteps out sledding for a bit, before we come back and dig into our own ham. Hopefully everyone else is having overeating and spending time with the people they care about too.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
