Holiday Greetings

Dear friends abroad,

I read about the book written by the man who had studied trees, and realised what horrible people we are, bringing amputated spirits in our home and celebrating on their expense. I felt horrible, but told everyone they have to be nice to our Christmas tree, talk to it and remember to make sure it doesn’t get thirsty. The least we can do. We’ve had a tradition of getting the ugliest tree we can find, although last year we failed at that, and this year the tree is only a bit lopsided, but you can’t really see it from this angle.

I don’t think I need to repeat myself, but let’s just say that on the job front nothing has changed: everything keeps changing in the Finnish vocational education field and especially within the general subjects that make up my bread and butter. Less money and tighter schedules and more responsibilities, on all scales. But now that I think we’re not going to have any more babies and the latest baby is, in her own words, quite big, and the rest of the kids are, too, so the family life has reached a point where it will just flow on, and I have worked on my personal issues and had some revelations about how to be a grown up, and anyway I’ve always liked the zen attitude to life and am now closer than ever to not only trying but really being, I think I’ve mastered the work-realted change and have learned to surf the wave. Like. Everything changes but nothing does.

I have not had mulled wine today, that’s just the way I think, darlings. I have, however, with the assistance of my daughter, put up a Christmassy treat table, which I’ve had to fill up a couple of times today. Right now I’m sitting here at the dinner table with a mug of coffee, enjoying some chocolates, kind of bewildered because Kerttu’s still asleep and since all the holiday dishes are ready, there’s nothing I really need to do. Very weird. I am going to get used to this because it has been busy at work. I keep forgetting things, like my keys and of course anything my children would need, and the other day I left my phone at the office, which I realised was great. I didn’t have to check it. I know I’m not alone with this one. It’s just that I’m not important enough to chuck mine altogether, you know, if I was I wouldn’t have to worry about people maybe not being able to reach me if I had to be reached. And to be honest, there are some people I like being able to reach me!

The weather here hasn’t been very wintery here at all. The forecast said it was going to rain the whole Christams Eve but actually I can see the sun shining right now (but it’s 3.16 already so it’s setting in a few minutes). So we’ve consciously planned on staying in most of the day, except that when Kerttu wakes up we’ll go out to the graveyard to light up some candles. We’re really bad at timing our outings on Christams Eves, because it often happens that Father Christmas has tried to pay us a visit exactly when we’ve been out, and has had to leave the presents on the porch or then the clever little elves have found the spare key and brought the sack in. I know other families have this planned much better as he gets to visit them every year for the fifteen to thirty minutes he has time to stop by, but we saw him last two years ago. Kerttu tried to give him back all the presents he gave her. Lack of practice.

Me and Hubby took a little break two weeks ago and stayed in Hamburg for the weekend. There I did have some mulled wine and sausage and pretzels and more mulled wine and had a wonderful time walking hand in hand through the Christmas Markets and the old town with the love of my life. No one to look after. Nothing to arrange. No hurry. Of course we also went to see some football. Apparently we should go more often, as HSV had their first home win with us in the audience.

The working mom life and the never-ending cycle of days make it difficult to point out the festive moments in the past few months, but the truth is there have been lots of celebrations, like Grandmas’s surprise 70th birthday party, other birthdays and a graduation party. I’ve been away from home on a work trip for a couple of days at a time once a month, which in a way is very cool and liberating, but always also a bit fraying. The best outings I can think of nowadays are geographically relatively close to home with the kind of friends I don’t have to waste time on explaining myself but just be and enjoy. A plus is when there’s a chance to get something done simultaneously, like on Thursday when I was at a friend’s house and we made sweet potato casserole for Christmas. And watched and analysed Pete Parkkonen’s new music video from a feminist point of view (check it out, the lyrics are in Finnish but you can get to the roots of the analysis nevertheless).

I think that’s about it from here at the moment. I wish you all a very relaxing holiday and all the best for next year!