Christmas 1998Christmas 1998And then something from our Christmas. Of course, I said quite much above this. But surely not all.
Our Christmas flower is mainly poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima). But that is really poisonous, that eager eating is just mortal thing! No worries! That's artificial one. Made of cloth or something like that!
Another flower for Christmas-time is hyacinth. It gives very
strong (and good) smell. And then tulips, very small, with their
"onions".
Christmas-hysteria! I really
hate that! Some study said, that level of a stress-hormone raises
during that (like fighter-pilot in a fierce fight). For males,
that is. And it seems to be very true!
There seems to be so much clerks in that picture. Yes. But here isn't the queue! About half an hour (and maybe that isn't enough).
I had an artificial (actually,
we have quite much spruces in our forests) Christmas-tree in my
balcony. And Ökö just loved it. Very strongly. Though
I haven't a picture, how she climbed into it. Or fell it down
(timber...).
Why artificial tree? Because "real" tree mostly smells.
And this is located in my balcony. The smell doesn't go in.
This
is the thing in my door. We (or actually my father did) put it
into there December 19th.
I had
to go back to that department store. Because, they haven't one
item, I required. They said, that they have it in Friday. Good,
except I didn't have the time. Only a fool would come on Saturday
or Sunday. So, I took Monday, 21st. Bad decision! Because there
was quite a rush anyway.
Every peasant (You can easily
see, that I don't love much them) should come then with own car.
Driving it like tractor (so extremely slowly; but the absolute
emperor of universe sits there...). So the traffic was just awful:
normally the cab trip from my apartment to the center of city
takes 20 minutes or so. Now it took one hour.
22.12.1998. This is really the
shortest day here. OK, in whole northern hemisphere.
This day was really cold: highest temperature -4.7C (=23.5F)
and lowest -13.1C (=8.4F). And weather broadcasters predicted
quite heavy snowing for Christmas. Romantic!
Then quite special Christmas-sauna.
Usually that's 24th, but not possible with me. I'm holding a 'vihta'
(okay, someone call it with a name of 'vasta'). One whips oneself
with it. That makes sweat to run fiercely. And quite nice flavor
into the sauna.
By the way, Ökö was there, too...
I was transported
to my parents' place at Uusmäki roughly at 2 o'clock in the
afternoon. It snowed quite heavily then (about 10-15 cm of snow).
But that doesn't make any troubles to us or our traffic. Later
that turned into snow mixed with water and then into sheer water.
Christmas-tree
is decorated at Christmas eve. Our tree was very slim one, that
fitted better into the living room.
Elve-patrol has visited a littele bit earlier bringing some
gifts.
And then we have
the problem with extra-nervous kids. But that has very simple
solution: cartoons by Disney...
Our precourse. Especially fish-roe
from rainbow trout was delicious. That was on a toast with sour
cream and chopped onions. Delicious!
Main course. Read, what there
were, from previous year...
Both
kids had problems with eating: much too nervous for that!
Cats were nervous,
too! Here's Ökö and then Nilla, the cat of my parents.
"Santa
is coming." That made both kids just so even more nervous.
Both of them ran around and tried to hide themselves as well as
possible.
Santa had a sleigh behind him. Pauli has wanted just such! Santa knows everything.
My father missed everything! He had some kind of problems with
his car.
Pauli at lap of
Santa. Tuuli didn't even dare to touch Santa.
Pauli had some doubts about personability of Santa. But he
only whispered them. So, that Santa wouldn't hear...
That big bag contained enormous
teddy-bear for Tuuli.
And then she got a cat-doll,
just like Ökö!
Then, after presents,
we had some dessert: ice-cream (just quite ordinary vanilla),
cloudberries, and then some kind of cheese (even my dictionary
(and it's really thick one) hadn't suitable word for that).