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Christmas in Finland is, as I may have pointed out in previous years, the best thing ever. A full account follows, concealed under the cut tags, but in summary: White Christmas, loads of very cool presents, more food than I could possibly consider consuming, good people, cats, dog, and all other essentials.
On the evening of 23rd, we left Lammi to go to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
inannajones' grandmother's house in Hameenkoski. It was snowing very lightly as we left, hving been blizzarding when we arrived in Finland. Job stress and the like had finally caught up to me, and I'd been unwell for a couple of days - nothing serious, just a sore throat, nausea and upset stomach, and a tendency to sleep for about 18 hours in 24. That had pretty much passed by then, and I was just a bit sleepy.
When we got to the house,kamaitachi, frostious, thier mother, another aunt, her daughter, and of course their grandmother were already there. At Christmas, I'm the only bloke in a house very full of women. Nobody seems to mind. I suspect I keep things civilised. :P
We were out for a little while in the late evening, and there was very fine snow falling, glittering in the lights of the house, and it was so quiet it was deafening. There really were no sounds outside, which isn't something you can really encounter in Ireland, because there are always sheep, even in the very isolated areas. It was something incredible.
While we were outside, there was the changing of the guard from the cats - Killi came out, and Kalle went in. Killi, ginger and white, is not a small cat, and she's not reluctant to use her claws. Kalle, however, is going to be shipped back to South America when the authorities catch up to him. He's vast, and black, and he attacked my foot from under a table at one point, inflicting a fair number of impressive scratches.
I crashed out at about 22:00, and slept through to something a tad after 10:00 the next morning. And then we were into the traditions of Christmas Eve. A slow breakfast while the cooking gets started, and then watching The Snowman and The Christmas Peace on television (juuro has provided a >a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/juuro/66355.html">translation of the Peace).
Then out to fetch in the Christmas tree - already cut this year, so no adventuring through the forest to get it. While it thawed out some,inannajones and I went for a walk, and ended up making our way through the forest a bit anyway. Then in to decorate the tree, which is a slow and carefully considered process, and seems to involve a box of holding containing ornaments - there are always about four more in it. Lunch, then, and the arrival of various other cousins, who I know less well. I had a long conversation with one relative about languages and commercial habits - he speaks some English, and with that and my little Finnish and mutual German and Swedish vocabulary, we get by.
When they had left, we went out to the graveyards to put candles on the graves. This is without a doubt my favourite of the Finnish Christmas traditions - I've never heard of it being done anywhere else, and the sight of a snowy graveyard full of candles is wholly impossible to capture in images or words.
Coming in from this,frostious found a Nightwish concert on television, which occupied both of us until the sauna was ready. After inannajones and I emerged from that, and the next people were taking their turns, presents were placed under the tree from the various bags they were hidden in. Presents in Finland are opened after dinner on Christmas Eve, and the labels only say who they're to, not who they're from. You can usually work it out, of course, but I like the anonymity.
Dinner was vast and good - ham, various sorts of vegetables, two kinds of fish, everything prepared in the traditional ways, and lasagne for those heathens among us who won't eat the traditional foods.
And then the present opening. The youngest cousin got the duty of passing out parcels from under the tree, and considering the sheer number of them, this took quite a while. The pile of loot I get from this never fails to amaze me - these people see me once, at most twice a year, and yet I usually get better presents here than anywhere else. This year's haul included: A blue-and-gold bathrobe, which I'm wearing now, and which feels like velvet, a brown linen shirt which is now officially the coolest shirt I own, various tshirts, socks, etc, chocolates, a new wallet, a black mug that isn't sure if it's a container or a weapon - you could mount it on a haft and have a good mace, for instance - and a gift box of Jaegermeister. And I'm sure I'm missing a few.
Thereafter, we headed back to Lammi - we had considered staying another day, but the weather wouldn't really allow it - to drink Baileys and cider, and stay up late talking and drawing maps.
A very good Christmas. Hope all yours are likewise!
On the evening of 23rd, we left Lammi to go to
inannajones' grandmother's house in Hameenkoski. It was snowing very lightly as we left, hving been blizzarding when we arrived in Finland. Job stress and the like had finally caught up to me, and I'd been unwell for a couple of days - nothing serious, just a sore throat, nausea and upset stomach, and a tendency to sleep for about 18 hours in 24. That had pretty much passed by then, and I was just a bit sleepy.When we got to the house,
kamaitachi, frostious, thier mother, another aunt, her daughter, and of course their grandmother were already there. At Christmas, I'm the only bloke in a house very full of women. Nobody seems to mind. I suspect I keep things civilised. :PWe were out for a little while in the late evening, and there was very fine snow falling, glittering in the lights of the house, and it was so quiet it was deafening. There really were no sounds outside, which isn't something you can really encounter in Ireland, because there are always sheep, even in the very isolated areas. It was something incredible.
While we were outside, there was the changing of the guard from the cats - Killi came out, and Kalle went in. Killi, ginger and white, is not a small cat, and she's not reluctant to use her claws. Kalle, however, is going to be shipped back to South America when the authorities catch up to him. He's vast, and black, and he attacked my foot from under a table at one point, inflicting a fair number of impressive scratches.
I crashed out at about 22:00, and slept through to something a tad after 10:00 the next morning. And then we were into the traditions of Christmas Eve. A slow breakfast while the cooking gets started, and then watching The Snowman and The Christmas Peace on television (
juuro has provided a >a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/juuro/66355.html">translation of the Peace).Then out to fetch in the Christmas tree - already cut this year, so no adventuring through the forest to get it. While it thawed out some,
inannajones and I went for a walk, and ended up making our way through the forest a bit anyway. Then in to decorate the tree, which is a slow and carefully considered process, and seems to involve a box of holding containing ornaments - there are always about four more in it. Lunch, then, and the arrival of various other cousins, who I know less well. I had a long conversation with one relative about languages and commercial habits - he speaks some English, and with that and my little Finnish and mutual German and Swedish vocabulary, we get by. When they had left, we went out to the graveyards to put candles on the graves. This is without a doubt my favourite of the Finnish Christmas traditions - I've never heard of it being done anywhere else, and the sight of a snowy graveyard full of candles is wholly impossible to capture in images or words.
Coming in from this,
frostious found a Nightwish concert on television, which occupied both of us until the sauna was ready. After inannajones and I emerged from that, and the next people were taking their turns, presents were placed under the tree from the various bags they were hidden in. Presents in Finland are opened after dinner on Christmas Eve, and the labels only say who they're to, not who they're from. You can usually work it out, of course, but I like the anonymity. Dinner was vast and good - ham, various sorts of vegetables, two kinds of fish, everything prepared in the traditional ways, and lasagne for those heathens among us who won't eat the traditional foods.
And then the present opening. The youngest cousin got the duty of passing out parcels from under the tree, and considering the sheer number of them, this took quite a while. The pile of loot I get from this never fails to amaze me - these people see me once, at most twice a year, and yet I usually get better presents here than anywhere else. This year's haul included: A blue-and-gold bathrobe, which I'm wearing now, and which feels like velvet, a brown linen shirt which is now officially the coolest shirt I own, various tshirts, socks, etc, chocolates, a new wallet, a black mug that isn't sure if it's a container or a weapon - you could mount it on a haft and have a good mace, for instance - and a gift box of Jaegermeister. And I'm sure I'm missing a few.
Thereafter, we headed back to Lammi - we had considered staying another day, but the weather wouldn't really allow it - to drink Baileys and cider, and stay up late talking and drawing maps.
A very good Christmas. Hope all yours are likewise!
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From:
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From:
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It sounds wonderful, and I love the tradition of lighting candles on the graves, it paints such a beatiful picture.
Happy Holidays!
From:
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Sounds amazing.
From:
Beautiful