Xmas time

And then it was time for some serious quality time with the family: HO HO HO here comes Christmas! It was lovely and really nice. On christmas eve we started the day at my sister Mari´s house with a traditional christmas porridge and listening to the christmas peace declaration from Turku. Then we had a Santa with a harmonica coming at noon; we got the first round of presents and sang some christmas carrols to Santa! Everybody opened their presents one by one so that everyone got a good look.

Then we got ready for the evenings big family get-together at my cousin Anu´s country house - I think we were around 30 people there (7 kids!!!). We enjoyed the very traditional christmas dinner with the ham, raw fish, various casseroles etc. Delicious - but only at christmas! At 7pm we had the Santa coming again (yes, we had been exceptionally good this year!). It was a real mayhem for a while as the kids were tearing their gift wraps and getting over excited with everything (must say this is my least favourite part of big christmas parties). After the battle had seased, we moved on to the coffee and christmas pastries, and a little cognac too... Very nice indeed!