Today is Christmas Eve, which is when we Finns (and all the other Nordics) celebrate Christmas. In our household we’ve been doing two Christmases (Finnish and British) pretty much since I moved to the UK some 30 years ago. This year, Daughter has been cooking most of the Finnish foods. Her meatballs, swede bake and carrot bake look absolutely delicious, and her piparkakut (gingerbread men) are lovely!
A couple of days ago, I made my Gravad Lax two ways – one with the traditional dill, and one with fresh ginger. And yesterday The Englishman and I stayed up late to cook and glaze the ham. Today all I’d need to prepare is the traditional Russian herring with beetroot, carrot, pickled cucumber and red onion salad.
Sadly, however, our family will not be sitting down to our Finnish Christmas feast tonight.
No, it’s not the power cuts. The storms have hit UK badly, people have lost their lives and today many parts of the UK are without power. We had a short period last night when the whole of our North London street went black. My thoughts are with those who have suffered a loss and I feel sorry for anyone who has to travel today – from what I’ve seen in the news this morning, it’s veritable chaos on the trains, planes and on the roads.
But for us, the reason for a swift change to traditional Christmas celebrations is that three of our family have taken ill with food positioning. Last night while waiting for the ham to cook, we decided to get some pizzas. This morning at about four am Son, Son’s Fiancé and Daughter all started vomiting. Almost simultaneously. As I write, the flat is quiet, with all three sleeping…so I think it’ll just be The Englishman and me for the Joulupöytä tonight.
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| This year’s Swedish Blossa mulled wine is flavoured with raspberries. Thanks to a dear friend, we have a few bottles to enjoy! |
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| Our ham, best ever from Morley’s in Crouch End |
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| Lunch a deux with the Englishman – Finnish rice porridge and mulled wine. |
Oh well, let’s hope all will be better by tomorrow so that at least the British part of our Christmas celebrations goes without any major hiccups.
I’ll leave you with a link to a broadcast of the traditional proclamation of Christmas Peace from Turku in Finland this morning.
Hauskaa Joulua kaikille!
Merry Christmas to you all!
Oooh, food poisoning? Could it be the norovirus? I had that about a month ago and it's still around.
Wish you all better. Merry Christmas.
Great post, Helena! We are running a Christmas photo challenge at the moment by which we hope to gather photos and descriptions of Christmas traditions from all around the world. If you'd like to participate, write a couple of sentences about Christmas in your country, send us a photo to represent it and we will publish the best entries on our blog with a link to your site. Sounds good? 🙂 Here you will find more details: http://hitchhikershandbook.com/2013/12/21/christmas-traditions-around-the-world-photo-challenge/
Merry Christmas and a happy New Year! 🙂
Hope all is well with the family. A blessed Christmas to you and yours.