hyvää joulua!

that's a merry christmas to all of you.

right now my floor is shaking with the bass of Michael Jackson's greatest hits. my host family is obviously wayy past the whole Christmas thing, been there, done Michael Bublé and consumerist extravagance yesterday. in finland, the 24th is the real Christmas and the 25th is leftovers day. so here i am. 


Christmas Eve Eve is the official decoration day, so we woke up early to tinsel the banisters and light the tree. finns love candles almost as much as they love complaining about how dark it is outside, and my host mum set them up on all the flat surfaces she could find. after a lazy afternoon of watching the Grinch with Finnish subtitles in our fuzziest socks, we met up with some other families for a glögi evening (a traditional hot christmas drink, mixed with wine for the adults, with raisins and almond slices sinking to the bottom). late that night, my host parents slipped a Santa sack into my room, which I filled with my horribly-wrapped presents - when the kids opened them the next day my host brother hollered to my host sister "I think Santa got a little tired with these ones!". 


the next morning I dipped the ladle into the white-rice porridge, hoping - but my host dad got the lucky almond in his bowl. the cemetery might have contained more breathing people than gravestones when we arrived there midmorning...the Finnish tradition of tending the ancestors' graves on holidays is alive and well. candles at the foot of each grave lit the faces of the stone angels and the little kids bundled in their winter jumpsuits. the air was grey and the grass was dead, but it was beautiful.


on the way home, my host parents remarked "if by any chance Santa had told us when he was going to show up, we would probably remember it as around 4.45". Santa-ing actually turns quite a profit: the single men buy red robes and false beards and hire themselves out for 100 euros per 20 minute visit. the kids obviously didn't know this, so we played Harry Potter trivia games that couldn't distract us enough. they fidgeted through two christmas specials and half of a lame Sting concert. My littlest brother dashed to the door every half-hour or so, insisting he'd heard bells. And then finally, finally, boots stomped on our doorstep and in he walked, wooden staff jingling with little silver bells. My host dad towed sacks of gifts to the livingroom like a balding reindeer as Santa made himself comfortable in the leather armchair. Then the joyous ripping and tearing began.

post-present-opening stupor.

there were about 6 different kinds of pâté at Christmas dinner, as well as some interesting carrot-oatmeal casserole and cold turkey and colder ham and little kaurelian pastries. kaapo kept leaping up from his seat to blind us with his new camera. my host mum kept swiping at tuomo, who was putting all his old numbers into his iPhone under the table. we finished off with pipari, gingerbread with a little extra cardamom, and then everyone retired to the floor of the living room to play with all their new toys. since the most toy-like present i received was a bathrobe, i spent the rest of my night quite happily with alan rickman in Love, Actually.yes michael, i've been hit by a smoooooooooooooth criminal. i mean, look at this guy.

to those of you on the other side of the world who are still lazing about in pajamas and suffering from your post-stocking chocolate binge: try to enjoy it while it lasts. i have to go finish all this leftover joulukinkkua (christmas ham).