Cooking, and Baking, and Decorating!

I've finally finished with the food preparations that have to be done in advance! And yes, it really is after 4 AM. The last sheet of my homemade gingerbread cookies just went in the oven. I made pigs, men, women, stars, and hedgehogs this year. Oh, and one special heart shaped one for my horsie boy of course. This year we also made potato casserole, rutabaga casserole, and "sillsallad" (a blend of pickled beets, dill pickles, potatoes, carrots, onions, and herring) from scratch. Tomorrow we will then make the stew with moose meat, brussel sprouts, and fruit soup for dessert.

As far as decorations go, we still need to trim the tree. We chopped our own tree this year from a little patch of pines that have been growing down on the field by our guest cabin. It's been in the bathroom thawing out for a few hours and now we are going to put it up, light it, and hang decorations. We also have a nifty straw goat out on the front porch that we bought from a friend who makes them. These straw billy goats are an old Scandinavian tradition, but I've never seen one so big before! I promise to take some pictures of it and post them later.

Tomorrow will be a calm day, at least I hope. We probably won't get to bed before 6, so I hope to sleep in a bit before heading to the barn and such. Then depending on the weather we might go light candles on the graves in Helsinki or we might visit one of the local churches for the Christmas service. It's tradition, what can I say. In the evening my uncle Anders is supposed to come over for dinner, so it'll just be the three of us and the cats. A calm family Christmas in other words. Then it's a day of leftovers after that, and on Saturday we are having our Lutefisk party which I think will be fun.


Training log:
21.12: 7km run (40min)
22.12: -
23.12: -
24.12: 5km run + Ride
25.12: 5 km run (intervals) + Ride