I am not sure if we are bad at planning - but hosting Christmas....

Sucks!

Okay. That is not quite true, as everyone seemed to have a good time and stayed well past the usual 7 or 8pm cut off and the last guests left near 1am, but it was a lot of work. Two days in a row I have gone over 11,000 steps and literally, I haven't left the house!

We did things a bit different yesterday though, as normally it is arranged so people sit and eat all courses at once, but due to practical reasons (we didn't have enough plates) we had breaks between courses.

When people arrived, we served "Glögi" which is essentially Gluhwein (spiced mulled wine) with a bit of a Finnish twist in ingredients, I think. We served two versions, an alcoholic and non-alcoholic one for the kids and drivers.

All the food was expectedly traditional, starting with fish dishes like cold smoked salmon and the like. I don't have any pictures of the fish dishes, but it was the only course I got to eat.

Then came the ham.

My wife made the ham on the 23rd and then it sat in the cold basement overnight awaiting to be devoured. It was really good and one of the best so far. I had a slice of it only as I was "running the kitchen" with my wife making sure everyone had what they needed. Luckily, there is plenty left over which we have already been eating today and likely will do for the next few days. Christmas ham was our dog's favorite. It feels weird not to give him pieces from our plate.

My wife also made her own mustard using cognac, which is really, really good with the ham and has the texture of a creamed honey. Nom.

And of course all of the same-tasting casseroles, no matter what they are made out of.

Between courses, we had to wash plates and glasses, as well as coffee cups as with so many people, everything was doing double duty (including us), but thankfully our dishwasher has a quick cycle that is really short, so the gaps weren't too long.

But, this actually worked out quite well in my opinion, as people had time to digest a bit between courses and talk together. This is the first time we have all been gathered for two years and I think it showed by the way people socialized more - considering they are Finns.

Then, onto dessert.

Dessert was simple this year, with a cheese cake, Joulutorttu, gingerbread with blue cheese - and I also bought a lot of cheeses with jams. This "cheese platter" was the outlier I included into the mix and I think it went off very well. The other thing was that I put slightly more focus on the wines included also. We did tea, coffee, cognac and Baileys at this time too and I think that it all went well together.

At least, no one went home hungry.

After a bit of an interlude of Finnish Christmas singing, which my daughter loved, but I find awkward, it was time for the main even of the Santa visit. Now, I am not a fan of Santa or lying to kids, but it is a thing here and my daughter was really excited and said "Now that was the real Santa!"

Normally, it has been her Pappa that has played the role, but this year it was her cousin and he did a really, really good job of it and made everyone laugh a lot. In the past, Smallsteps has been scared of Santa, but this year really got into it, which was nice to see.

She also got far too many gifts (as expected) with them coming from "far and wide" (Australian Uncle) also. Because of the Santa-illusion though, the kids don't know what comes from who or where, which is a bit of a pity in my opinion.

Santa's little helper was there to hand out bags and boxes. Everyone that could brought the presents earlier and left them in our garage, so that it was easier to sneak things around. I am not sure how long this will go on for though, as personally, I think it is nice to have the presents under the tree, as it creates that excitement and expectation for the kids. But, I guess this works too.

Seriously though, there were a lot of presents to the point of ludicrousness.

Not much for me personally, but there is still a lot of chocolate left, so I think that will have to serve as my present. My wife got me a "Sleep analyzer" by Withings, but I don't think I will use it, as it looks like I will end up getting a CPAP machine anyway to try to improve Sleep Apnea.

And lastly, this was the group of us (sans me) and my wife ran an ugly sweater competition, with her brother-in-law (third from left) being the clear winner out of the group. The prize was some marmalade.

Well, that is Christmas 2021 over and while it was a lot of work for us (we will improve our process) it seems that everyone was happy enough that they want to come back next year again in 2022. I have no idea where I am going to put the extra dining table I had to buy for it in the meantime though.

Now that it is "real Christmas" - I am hoping to see some shares of how people spend theirs around the world. I know there are a few people who are spending it alone for various reasons and hopefully, they will find a way to enjoy a little too.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]