This year, as Annikki was not well, we did not call anyone over to share in our traditional Christmas dinner.
Annikki was busy in the garden putting up her candles in the snow and decorating the garden, in between her work in the kitchen.
A grand Christmas dinner for the three of us was prepared by Annikki. Actually, at 14:00 hours Annikki did not know it was Christmas Eve. I reminded her gently as the frozen turkey was sitting in our front room (temperature -10 C). She suggested we have it tomorrow, but at my insistence, she thawed it out by immersing it for a couple of hours in warm water.
Dinner consisted of roasted potatoes, carrots, Swede, Brussels sprouts, onions, garlic, sausage and a whole small turkey, all beautifully but very gently spiced with herbs and pepper and salt, and served with a fresh green salad, rossoli (a typical Finnish Christmas salad), gravy and mint jelly. We did not take out the Christmas pudding we had bought at London Airport, as earlier in the evening, Ani and her sister brought a freshly baked pulla (Finnish sweet bread loaf) which smelled, looked and tasted really delicious. Thanks Ani for that, we all really loved it. (Annikki and I have voted this girl is our eldest granddaughter!)
Lots of left overs for the next two days.
Tomorrow morning I will have the salted salmon (prepared by Annikki), which we did not even touch today, with Christmas bread (with molasses added). There was much too much for the three of us.
Spoke with Jaakko and Joy early in the evening. They will have Christmas lunch with Joy's father who will celebrate his 80th birthday tomorrow, Christmas Day.
Will try to speak with Joanna (in Newcastle) and Susanna (in Portugal) and their families later.
As you may have guessed, the garden and the kitchen are not my domains of activity, but I did baste the turkey when Annikki was not looking. :-)
Season's Greetings to all our Findians, Chaff, LinkedIn, Orkut, Plaxo, Twitter, Facebook, Cathedral and John Connon School, St. Stephen's College and Oulu University friends, relatives, professional colleagues and alumni.
A nice warm sauna and bath now and then I hit the sack. Annikki will watch the Christmas service from Rome.
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