Miss My's Christmas

How was your Christmas? Hope you had a very merry one!

My Christmas was very nice. We spent it with L's family (his parents, his brother and family, his sister and her boyfriend) like we always do whenever we spend it in Finland.

The Christmas festivities started on December 24th with rice porridge in the morning. A particular Christmas tradition that is often associated with eating rice pudding or porridge is hiding a whole almond in the porridge. In Finland, popular belief has it that the one who eats the almond will be in luck the following year. Well, I ate an almond (L's mom put 8 in the rice porridge though) so I'm expecting lots of good things the coming year! Hope you found an almond in your rice porridge too.

After the rice porridge we had to wait for Santa (L's uncle) to visit. We were all really excited (I was more excited than the kiddies) and waiting impatiently. Finally we heard the highly anticipated knock on the door and, well, I think I might have screamed a bit. Santa talked with the kids and the kids helped Santa distribute the presents. The kids then posed for a picture with Santa and Santa left. We all opened some presents and then went home to rest a bit before returning for Christmas dinner.

Ah, Christmas dinner. I always look forward to this: the traditional Finnish Christmas eating fest. We had smoked salmon and lax served with a roe/whipped cream/onion mixture called mäti (it's delish!), rosolli (beet salad, yum!) served with whipped cream mixed with beetroot juice, Christmas ham, perunalaatikko (potato casserole), lanttulaatikko (swede casserole) and plum pudding. It was definitely the highlight of my Christmas. Although, it was really nice to spend time with L's family and we got some really good pressies.

Well, now the countdown until next Christmas starts. Only 361 days left. Yay.