The Chill is Gone
Now the crazy starts.
It has been relatively calm up until this point in the preparation for Sunday Christmas with my wife's family, but once Saturday morning arrives, it is going to get pretty intense. Well I should say, my wife is going to get pretty intense.
The chill is gone.
The first thing on the cards (for her) is going to be getting the ham in the over for its first round of high temperature heating, before the heat is lowered and it will cook for another nine hours or so, according to her calculations.
Her calculations are rarely correct.
Out of the ten or eleven Christmases we have spent together, it has been me up at 3 am, waiting for the ham to finish about 6 or 7 times. However, this will be the first large ham that we have made in this particular oven, so perhaps it might be more on time than usual, which would be nice.
What is also a bit of a change this year is that the "Christmas clean" was facilitated by a couple professionals - a husband and wife duo who spent about four hours here. We have booked cleaners for other Christmases, but this is the first ones that have actually shown up and they did a really good job. It is relatively expensive to get cleaners here, but there is a 60% tax rebate on the work, which means that it isn't too bad. Of course, the price reflects the rebate a bit too, but the couple seemed nice and I think it is good to support local businesses.
My job?
Other than the snow work, which will need to be done every day for the next three at least, the major thing for me is to clean the sauna, which hasn't been used in about 2.5 years. It isn't the most wonderful sauna in the world as the previous owners "made it themselves" - and obviously didn't know what they were doing. One day it will need to be redone, but for now, we should use it more and enjoy what we can of it, as even though it is very far from great, it is better than nothing.
Oh, I have to wrap some presents as well. I don't have many to wrap however, as we have a "one gift rule" for the adults, and this is on a name chosen from a hat. I did get something for my wife though, just something small. Of course, Smallsteps will get most of her very sensible wishes granted, especially since they are things we were going to get at some point for her anyway. The big one is piano lessons, which are frightfully expensive in Finland, even for a twenty minute beginner sessions. She is musical though, so it is a good place to start. The other things on the list,
- fleece pants (she lost hers at school [then found them], but needs a new pair)
- a headband with dog ears (can't find one anywhere)
- mouse socks (her cousin found some)
- a night away with mummy (they will spend a night at a spa center in the city, swimming)
- an easy to read book (will get her a beginner piano book)
- and the piano lessons (which we were going to get her this coming year)
Not a toy on the list.
Her piano teacher lives just down the road, so it means that Smallsteps can walk there after school and then home herself. The teacher is a friend of our neighbors, but teaches through the academy of music in the city. There aren't any "casual" teachers about it seems - everything is formal. However, perhaps that is a good thing for Smallsteps anyway. What was interesting to hear is, in the first lesson they will do things like catching and throwing a ball to test dexterity, and some tasks to check if they are patient enough. Smallsteps will love this bit the most - she loves tests.
She didn't get it from me.
I am remembering all the other things I still have to do tomorrow that I have forgotten about.
Might do the first round of snow work after this, to get a jump on it. It will be about 2am.
Hosting Christmas is a lot of work, but it is also something that is important to my wife, so I guess it is worth it. Just don't tell her, otherwise more will go on my list. However, I barely talk during Christmas, because most people won't speak in English with me, so there is really only my wife's older niece and nephew to speak with, and even their partners (weirdly for young people) barely speak English.
I spend most of my time as a waiter.
But, what I am looking forward to is seeing how the kitchen performs on the battlefield, because we haven't used it to cater for so many people yet. We hosted two years ago in the unrenovated kitchen and it was quite terrible. Hopefully, with a better appointed layout and more useable bench space for serving from, it will work out well.
Kitchens are the soul of the home.
And on Christmas day proper, it will be used for preparing leftovers for my friend, who is coming to spend a couple days with us. And of course, mixing some gin tonics. I am looking forward to a couple chill days just shooting the shit and hanging out, with nothing much planned.
We will have a crappy sauna though.
What are you wishing for this Christmas?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
9 hours to cook the ham?!!! You guys cooking for the entire village?
I noticed you said Christmas Dinner on Sunday. Does Finns celebrate Christmas on the eve and not the day? I know that's what the German's does.
It is an 8kg, on the bone ham. I think it will take a bit longer. There will be at least 16 of us.
Yep, it is on the Eve here. I think it is either due to their general preparedness and efficiency, or their impatience ;D
Oh you are going to be busy! You will have earned your chill days with your buddy after the holiday festivities. Smart move to hire in the cleaning couple. Smallsteps has such a mature way about her, even reflected in her Christmas list. If she loves tests and challenges then she will love making music on the piano, as she will set challenges for herself. Hope we hear of her progress!
Merry Christmas to you and your family
First round of snow work done!
Smallsteps has such a mature way about her, even reflected in her Christmas list.
It kind of worries me a bit, that she is too mature for her own good. I was pretty similar (nowhere near as smart) when I was a kid, and it hasn't been great for me. Though, I was left to my own devices, she will have some support.
We have a piano here and she puts on "concerts" for us. Today's included a ballet portion also. For a seven year old who has never had a piano lesson, she has an ear and a touch.
And to you and yours!
I hope your wife doesn't read this!!! hahahahaha. Christmas is a beautiful time, but a very busy time. Here at home we will dedicate ourselves to making hallacas, salads, breads for dinner. All day we will be making food for dinner for an hour and then have a few drinks until midnight, until Santa arrives. I live in a very poor neighborhood and we give some toys and candy to the kids that pass by. This is my favorite part of Christmas. Hopefully this Christmas is full of good and positive things. May your dinner be so successful, it makes you want to do it again next year. Greetings, my friend
I am safe I think!
This is a really nice gesture. Hopefully things will improve in the coming years there.
Feliz Navidad!
Nice broski, ubhave everything there to have a great days with the family ✨🎄
This is the most interesting part to me, maybe changing rum for gin though 🙂
But testing the kitchen and seeing smallsteps reaction will also be good ones.
It is going to be fun - there will be some cognac on Christmas day, but I am not a huge fan of brown liquors.
My job is mostly food shopping. Four stops today, each at a store packed with crazed shoppers. In the fourth store, I finally found what might be the last two sweet red peppers in the metro area. Aebleskivers at my niece’s on the 24th, then my sister-in-law @jayna and her family here for Christmas dinner on the 25th.
No snow here, 50°F tomorrow with rain all day. Another win for Team Global Warming!
Never had those, but they look great! There is a similar looking thing here called "nami munkki" which I love.
Sounds like you have a couple days of family fun ahead of you. Merry Christmas!
Oh, and on the crazed shoppers - I did my grocery shopping at 1am in the morning :)
Oh I love holistic places, hang on to that one if you can afford it :D
And good luck with the ham! I'm really lucky in that J cooks and this year we're with my parents so we have two great cooks in the house XD Eldest has said that he wants them to have a master chef battle not because he's expecting either to come out on top but because he wants to benefit from the results XD
Are you looking forward to stress testing the kitchen? :D
It always feel touch and go!
Cunning like a fox ;)
I am looking forward to the stress test - and then the wine after ;)
Do you get to sit back and do very little then?
For the most part. I end up running other errands or helping clean up and stuff, not really much good at anything else.
Is the ham very much or what?
Cooking it for 9hrs seem to be too much
It sounds like you’ll be getting quite the workout dude! Glad you’ve been hitting the gym lately to prep for this lol.
We are looking forward to hosting one day when we get a real house, we could host one or two people right now but it would be difficult given the size of our place. These things sound like a lot of work for sure but I’ve always wanted to be the place for people to go. I hope once that arrives I’ll want to do it again hahaha but it’s all good. I love the memories for the kids! That’s my favorite part. I have such fond memories of Christmas growing up!
Small steps cracks me up with her choices! She’s already an old soul haha but I think she’s lived a little bit more than some other kids have with her food allergies and stuff. Bless her little heart!
It’s pretty interesting that the people you’ll be with barely speak any English at all. I guess it’s not that bad and kind of a good thing for people to retain their local culture and language but it’s a little surprising to say the least.
You better have a butler outfit on :D
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Best of luck with the ham, I know how crazy ovens can be from one house to the next. I hope everything goes really well for you. It sounds like a quite busy time. Our festivities really ramp up on Sunday.
Those are very cute and practical wishes from your daughter. I remember wanting toys or gaming consoles when I was a child. I am not a social person, so I usually keep to myself in parties, or just hang out with a very small amount of people that I know, and I'm good. With your situation, since the party is for your wife, she can handle the socializing, and you can focus on the food and serving.
I am curious though, have you tried learning the language?
I think our country (Philippines) is more into consumerism than I realized. We never make our hams here... we buy the ready-made and frozen ham from the store. I'm not even sure if some of those hams are pure meat...
I think it's better to 'invest' in Smallstep's musical talent. It's good to start them early. Simplicity is bliss...
I mean... I can't help but compare Smallstep's wishlist to some kids here who are wishing for an iPhone 14 while their parents can hardly afford an Android phone.
Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas to you and your family
My favorite basketball team already stole
ruinedChristmas by losing 5 games in a row... Now all I have to wait for is herrings and duck.Is the house where you gather changed every year? Otherwise, I wouldn't bear all this stuffs plus cleaning ever year 😄
Must be a proud papa. Looks like a good looking list to me.
I don't have much on my list this year, so maybe some luck with a few more GFL. I'll be flying on Christmas, so I hope I get into Denver without much hassle. With my partner away for the week with her family in San Diego, it has been a very low key holiday season for me. I met with each of my parents for dinner, but besides that I've just been to myself and gearing up for an exciting 10 days in Denver.
Good luck with your holiday feast!
A busy holiday for you, I see. I understand about hosting. Did that for many decades. You're so busy, you don't have time to truly enjoy and are worn out by the time Christmas day arrives. But it is so much fun to have family during the season. Thankfully, I'll not have to host this year; just contribute.
I have so much leftovers that I'm busy begging everyone to not leave, especially the desserts so I won't be tempted to gorge for a week afterward.
Thanks so much for your support this year. I appreciate it. Take care.
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