We’re sitting around chatting at the end of our Shrove Tuesday pancake party.

Eve & I are having fondue at Tiina’s.

It’s the second day of the new year, and I’m feeling human again after yesterday’s tiredness. Here are some photos and a quick description of our new year.

Töölönlahti afternoon sun

On New Year’s Eve, Eve & I went for a walk round Töölönlahti, planning to meet Mari & Erik at Cafe Tintin Tango.

Gravel shadows

One thing that always catches my eye is how the low sun gives everything shadows, even the grains of gravel that they spread on the icy paths.

Mari & Erik got to Tintin Tango first and told us the cafe was full, so we went instead for a late lunch at Ravintola Kuu. Then I went out for a walk by myself, stopping at Kappeli’s café to think and write in my journal.

In the evening Mari & Erik came to our place and we played a game of Guillotine before going off to Géraldine’s party. It was a fun and lively party with a few familiar faces, and after midnight we went across the street to the Rose Garden night club – a very trendy place with labyrinthine cellar rooms and lots of cool twenty-somethings.

Around 2am we left Rose Garden and went via our place to join the end of Marika’s party – a nicely mellow and cosy atmosphere for ending the evening. We finally got home around 5am.

On New Year’s Day, we slept. In the evening Jyjy joined us for some fine hangover food – mashed potatoes and hand-made organic pork sausages from Hakaniemen halli.

I’m having lunch at Cafe Tintin Tango. It’s a great refuge on this windy & rainy day, and their all-day breakfasts are an old favourite of mine.

We had our usual English Christmas dinner at our place on Christmas Day. It’s handy to be able to have the family Christmas on Christmas Eve and the ‘friends’ Christmas on Christmas Day.

Christmas dinner

From left: Marika, Niklas, Jyjy, Eve, Soili, James & Tiina.

Cindy attacks the turkey

Cindy strikes a dramatic pose with the turkey.

Christmas pudding

The Christmas pudding came out just fine – very juicy, very fruity and rather alcoholic!

In Finland we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. Eve & I joined her family at her mother Airi’s place.

Airi’s tree

Here’s Eve’s mother’s Christmas tree.

Eve & Tiina at Vartiokylänlahti

Eve, Tiina & I went for a brief walk beside Vartiokylänlahti, which Eve’s mother’s home overlooks. It was a lovely day.

Sun low over Vartiokylänlahti

In Finland in winter the sun never gets very high in the sky, and views like this of the sun through the trees are typical.

Janne, Eve & Tiina opening presents

Later in the day we opened our presents. This takes rather a long time…

Christmas tree
Originally uploaded by Greygriffin.

We bought our Christmas tree at Hakaniemi market square a couple of days before the party. The tree seller was probably the first of the season, and obviously not a professional but just someone who had some land with trees on it. But ours is a nice tree and fits the room rather well – I just had to trim the top 20cm off the top to make it fit.

Eve did all the decorating – I just did the heavy lifting taking it home and installing it in its stand.

Finished Christmas cake
Originally uploaded by Greygriffin.

So after all the effort, here’s the finished Christmas cake. It’s nearly a foot across, and extremely heavy. The icing is “royal icing”, and the holly & ivy decorations are made from marzipan – they took a while to do, but came out very satisfyingly.

More importantly, the cake tastes good too!

Pikkujoulu table
Originally uploaded by Greygriffin.

Last Saturday Eve & I had our ‘pikkujoulu’, i.e. Christmas party. About 20 guests came, and we had a very enjoyable time. So enjoyable in fact that I forgot to take any photos, apart from this one of the table of food we’d spent the previous day and several evenings cooking. There were various savoury mini-pasties etc., Christmas cake, mince pies, shortbread, rum butter tarts and old English egg nog tart.

The mulled wine was a great success: we made about 9 litres and it all went by the end of the evening.

Misty Eteläsatama
Originally uploaded by Greygriffin.

This is Helsinki’s south harbour, last Friday evening. There was a thick mist, and the harbour lights glowed blurrily through it.