Ok, here are some pictures of the Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve obviously starts with Christmas cartoons at 7 AM. So Ebba and I got up, got dressed and stared at the television. Janne kept on sleeping, where's the Christmas spirit in that? We were invited for Christmas porridge at my parents house, so I didn't make any myself this year. Sauna is one of the Christmas Eve's morning traditions. I was hoping to get that too at my parents' but thay had Sauna in the evening. When we were kids and spent all our Christmases at my grandma's house we used to run naked from sauna to the snow. My parents live in a very posh neighbourhood, so no chance of that happening there! It's a shame really, that was so much fun!

Anyway here's a picture of gang having rice porridge:

The picture was taken by Ebba and in it are on the right side my sister Wilma, and on the left you can see my hand in a grey sleeve, my husband Janne and my brother Erno.

Some of us covered their porridge in cinnamon but still wouldn't give away the cinnamon cup. You are supposed to put sugar and cinnamon on top of your porridge and milk on the sides. Who ever gets an almond in his/her porridge gets to make a wish or if I get it it's usually a sign of me getting to wash the dishes. No almond in this year's porridge, so it's not even a real Christmas porridge! Hmmpf!

(Ebba could have at least combed her hair, it being Christmas and all...)

Having eaten the porridge we started all playing Carcassonne, which is a brilliant game. Ebba had waited for the Snowman cartoon, which you just have to see each Christmas and I wanted to see, as usual, the declaration of Christmas peace. It has been declared from the town of Turku since the middle ages, and is a huge part of the Finnish Christmas tradition. But as it happened we were so engaged in the game that we forgot to watch both. This momentarily lowered my Christmas spirit. But then it was time to go eat at my grandma's. She now lives in an apartment building and not where she used to when we were kids. My mom was at work so present at the Christmas dinner were myself, Janne and Ebba, both my siblings, my father, my aunt Kirsi and grandma of course.

As soon as we got to grandma's I realized I had forgotten my camera at my parents' house. I took some pictures on Janne's cell, I'll try to put them here later. Anyway, food was great and plenty as always. And after dinner we started playing Carcassonne again.

Then my family went to the graves. It's a tradition to bring candles to all your dead loved ones on Christmas. We have two graveyards to visit, my grandfather from my mother's side is on a different one from all the rest. On the other graveyard we visit Janne's father's grave and our family grave with my grandfather, grandmother (whom I never met), my uncle and my great grandmother buried in it. Nothing is more beautiful than thousands of candles in a very dark but snowy night! Unfortunately Janne's cell doesn't have the best of cameras, so all the pictures are black with lighter spots where the candles are... :/ On our way home from the second cemetary, we always drive past this really tacky house, covered in Christmas lights - the American Style! Finnish decorations are usually really subtle and classic. But it's always sort of fun to see this one, very different house. It's a sort of a Christmas joke!

Anyway, back to my parents'. Santa comes there to give out the gifts.

Ebba: "I suspect that Santa is grandpa..." Ebba thinks there is the real Santa who lives in Korvatunturi, in the polar circle and then he gets a lot of help from other men, posing as Santa. This Santa's cover has been blown!

It's a huge work finding all the gifts the proper recipient, so Ebba helps...

Everybody seems to have been nice, 'cause we all get something. here comes the guitar:

After opening the presents it's time for some coffee:

Erno, Wilma and Ebba seem to have found the spirit (for Erno this means farting in other peoples' faces):

After the coffee Janne, Ebba and I headed to the Church, the event there started at 10 PM. I love our altar and the painting, Christmassy, right?

And here are some details from my parents' Christmas decorations I caught on camera: