December

 

Hi all! It's finally Advent. We're opening the doors of our calendar. Helsinki started Christmas stuff already in November, but now it's for real. Our neighbors have Christmas lights in their apartment windows - many of them have lamps like this one that we also bought: 

 

 Last week we made a list of things we still want to do in Helsinki. Today we have officially only two weeks left. On the 22nd we will pack up our things and travel to my sister EH:s house, where we will lodge over Christmas. We should get Christmas gifts bought for the family before then, and visit all the places that we haven't yet. 

We started the visiting last week with HAM, Helsinki Art Museum. They had exhibitions on the four candidates for the Ars Fennica Award. The audience got to vote too! PW, IT and I all chose our favorites and dropped our little voting tickets into the appropriate box. It was actually a marvelous evening. We checked first off visiting the original Fazer Café. My, what cakes! 

 

Display at Fazer Café

After the cakes we went to the museum. They also had an exhibition on Tove Jansson (it's Moomin's celebratory year, so we've been inundated with Tove Jansson stuff the whole time we've been here. We don't complain.) and a couple of other exhibitions. IT wanted to see them all - PW had already been there so he didn't insist, but we did the whole museum. It's not too big.  

 

A Moomin wall painting in a day care in Helsinki

Coming home I felt really happy despite the weather, which has been disgusting for weeks now, with slight rain and temperatures in the upper thirties or lower forties (Fahrenheit.) I was happy with my family who appreciate sweet treats and art. 

PW and I also did a trip to the Christmas market in Helsinki, "Tuomaan markkinat". Luckily it didn't rain that day. Let me say that Finland isn't Central Europe. Christmas markets aren't as big of a thing here as they are there. Tourists though often expect all of Europe to have these festive markets that you can find in Germany, and slowly the Helsinki market has grown to what it is now. I had never visited Tuomaan markkinat when I lived in Helsinki, but this time we went. It was nicer than I thought! It was lunch time so we tried out the trendy Christmas food, Christmas porridge. Last year you had to stand in a long line for the re-branded rice porridge, but this year there were many more entrepreneurs who played around with toppings and delicious porridge, so we didn't have to wait long. The original porridge mixers are called N4ku - it's a restaurant. I ate their classic: porridge with miso caramel, apples and perhaps lingonberries, PW got a forest version with young tips from a spruce tree and blueberry mousse. I might be missing or confusing some ingredients, but they were both delicious! 

Christmas porridge at Tuomaan markkinat

The Christmas Market featured food, treats to take home and give as presents, lots of handicrafts, Christmassy or not, and even a couple of demos. There was a glass blower making little glass figurines and next to him a blacksmith. This I didn't expect. 

Saturday was Finnish Independence day. We cooked and had my brother PT over with his partner for dinner. Between cooking we watched TV. It was amazing (for people who normally live in the US) to turn on TV and have Independence Day program on the whole time. PW watched an old film, "Tuntematon sotilas" (the Unknown Soldier), made from one of the most well-known novels in Finnish literature. The book and the movie tell the stories of some soldiers during the Winter War. I didn't watch, but I heard the bombs exploding. Apparently it's a thing to watch on Independence Day... but I never have. Too much death for me. 

There was also a televised Independence Day concert by RSO (Radio Symphony Orchestra) with Finnish music by Sibelius, Saariaho and Klami. And in the end, the Finlandia of course. 

In the evening everyone watches the Independence Day celebrations at the Presidential Palace. Some 2000 guests had been invited, politicians, diplomats and Finns who have distinguished themselves in different ways during the past year. People like to watch it and judge the dresses... also, this year there were some well-known artists creating the music at the party. Several guests were interviewed on TV, including, of course, KAJ. KAJ didn't play nor sing, they were just there as guests with their wives. 

I love my country. I felt happy and touched that I got to be here for Independence Day. But I heard the Finlandia so many times on Saturday that I don't need to hear it for a year.