24th Dec 2010: This was how we celebrated Christmas

(Some images here were snagged from Debs' album on FB)

Morning of Christmas Eve, traditional rice porridge was served with cinnamon and plum soup as breakfast.

In that one pot of porridge, there is a whole almond, which whoever gets it, will have good luck in the coming year.

And here's the lucky one: Jaakko.

We played Carcasonne before that. I love boardgames like this.

And then it was time to set up for dinner. Most of the food were made the night before. So it was just a lot of setting up instead of cooking.

These were the awesome starters:

Pickled herring and baked potato with some mashed up stuff in between

Smoked salmon on some kind of salad and traditional Finnish rye bread

Reindeer and either moose or elk cold cuts, hard boiled eggs with beetroot and apple salad, smoked salmon

Anu's salad with walnuts, blue cheese, other good stuff and vinegar

The rest of the appetizers included beetroot salad, pickled carrots, and different kinds of smoked salmon

The main course was the traditional Christmas ham. Here in Finland, they serve ham instead of the commercialised turkey. The ham was put into the oven at midnight on the eve of Christmas Eve, taken out right before dinner, had the skin removed, spread mustard all over, sprinkled with bread crumbs and back into the oven until it's time to be chowed down. Simple. No stuffing or marinating required. Original taste. You can't even taste the mustard after that but you can eat it with more mustard if you want.

I don't have any other good pictures of the ham. It was so delicious that I ate my slices straight after I took them onto my plate.

And then, Santa came, after much anticipation from the kids. He came in a pretty nice car too.

Santa greeted everyone in the house, we sang a traditional Christmas song to him and he returns a verse. I sang too. In Finnish! =D

The kids sat on his lap and he worked his usual Santa charm on them.

And I got asked to go and sit on his lap too. Damn shy, that I'm 25 and also it's my first time sitting on Santa's lap. But oh well, it's my only Christmas spent here. So. =)

If I went, Debbie must go too =D The sporting her even sang a song for Santa.

And then it was presents time. This is the first time I'm seeing presents by truckload just for one family. Like 85% of all the presents go to 3 kids. It's also the first time I had to buy so many presents for Christmas. 11 is a lot to me, considering that I almost do not need to buy anything in the previous years as there was never such a tradition in my family although we celebrate Christmas. Only 1 or 2 for my closest friends. And none when I'm broke :P

Another song before he leaves.

After he has left, it's opening of the presents time.

This pile belongs to 2 kids

Oklah, I'm also happy cos I got a few presents instead of one or none. All from Anu and Jaakko, and both maternal and paternal grandparents. I got a fleece blanket, a pair of ski gloves, a set of beautifully designed utensils, awesome Panda chocolates, and a book on the beautiful landscapes of Finland. I love my gifts ♥

Desserts were served after that.

Tiramisu/chocolate cake/grandma winging it

Traditional Christmas pulla (Luciapulla) and gingerbread made by Debbie, Helmi and I the night before.

The food was absolute yummers. I thought Debbie came to visit at the right time as she had the opportunity to taste the different types of food and all of the dishes are traditionally Finnish. Even with all the food bursting out of our seams, we continued to hang out with the kids, played with their new toys until the middle of the night.

I had a good Christmas this year. I'm very grateful I get to experience a different kind of Christmas celebration; one that is more of a family affair than just a party or holiday celebration. One with a different kind of spirit and different kinds of food. Oh the food. I wish I had more space. But as expected, we had to eat the leftovers for the next 5 days. God bless our stomachs.