This Christmas Janne and decided to go solo and spend Chritmas Eve, and Day, just by our lonesome, the two of us. I am so happy we did this, it's been quite a few years since last time, but I think was the perfect mellow holiday we needed, in our own rhythm; sleep when tired, eat when hungry. (And bingewatch The OA without relatives calling us a-social!)
A brand new futon mattress (our Christmas present to ourselves) also helped us along with the sleeping, I cannot tell you how awesome it is to have a new mattress after the crappy one which should have been retired years ago). Tell you all about our futon later. The fiber enthusiast in me is stoked with its coconut cotton blend.
A dense dancing of snowflakes all day yesterday cast their spell of tranquility and silence and blanketed us and our home in a dreamy winter mood.
The blue of the outside clashed so wonderfully with the colors of the foods at the table, which this year were mainly fish and vegetables, no ham! Having so many beautiful local ingredients like game and reindeer, we opted for a Christmas with no ham. Perfect, as I have always enjoyed the herring and other fish dishes more than stuffing myself to a coma on dead pig on Christmas Eve.
Today reindeer was on the menu.
We forgot to buy wine, but dad's homemade cranberry juice was actually perfectly tasty with these hearty foods.
The hero dish in the middle was salty salmon cheese cake, for which I happened to see the recipe on Strömsö during the week, and YUM! With fresh horseradish both of us loved every bite of it. There's still some in the fridge, I've caught myself more than once sneaking in there for a fingerful of it.
Woke up this morning to a beautiful rosy sky and heated the Christmas morning sauna; one of the loveliest Finnish Christmas traditions I think. Going straight from bed to wood pile to heating the sauna!
The ice lanterns survived last weeks 0 C weather, they melted and cracked and are more delicate-looking now.
Though my back has been giving me a hard time, I couldn't resist weaving a few rows in the loomroom. And of course I couldn't let my loom spend all of the holiday alone! (I keep my so-ugly-their-pretty-green print curtains closed when I'm not in there working because the old windows are so drafty, you could literally use the window sill between the window and the curtain as a refrigerator)
For the rest of the night it's going to be knitting and audio books on the sofa!
