Thursday 17 December 2015

Yulish questions

I recently received another set of questions from my friend and fellow blogger at the stunningly beautiful Almond Valley! This time, the questions are Yule themed, as befits the season... So, here goes! All sorts of musings about the holidays. :)


1. Are you going to give any presents you made by yourself?
I’m thinking... chocolate! Yes, perhaps; if I can find the time. It's not looking very good at the moment...

2. What’s the best present you’ve ever received that was made by the person who gave it to you?
This one’s easy! Woollen socks knitted by my mother-in-law. My feet are always cold. Always. My mother-in-law knits awesome socks; they’re pretty and soft and warm. They’re a gift that I use every day (yes, even in summer) and particularly special since she makes them herself – I could never knit a sock!

3. Have you ever made your own advent calendar?
I used to make them as a child. Now I no longer actually make them, but we have one which is basically 24 boxes that have to be filled... with chocolate! :) And little notes for my daughter that tell her to go treasure hunting to find tiny surprise presents.

4. What puts me in the mood for Yule is...
Candles. Music (I particularly love Loreena McKennitt’s Midwinter music). Scents – gingerbread, cinnamon... The first mug of mulled wine (or glögi).


5. What’s your best Christmas recipe?
A date cake laced generously with rum. My DH actually bakes them, but since I developed the recipe, I think I can claim some credit. ;) This cake is extremely moist and sort of caramelly because of the dates... it’s almost as good as chocolate cake!

6. Have you ever spent the holidays abroad? Where and what was it like?
I’ve spent the holidays in Canada, first in 1995 with my mother, father and sister, and then in 2004 with my husband. The first one was lovely, some traditions, some new things, and the second one was actually our first holiday without our families, just the two of us. We had some decorations, lots of candles, and a friend even gave us a tiny tree! We had smoked salmon and rye bread that I’d baked... and I cooked a turkey breast with plenty of pesto! Not very traditional, but we thought it was delicious. We had eggnog and chocolate... I missed sauna, but we took a bubble bath in candle light, and it was lovely. I had an elf costume that my DH found very... shall we say, entertaining. ;) There was much reading and relaxing and no obligations to do anything. Definitely one of the best holidays ever!

7. The prettiest flower arrangement for Christmas is made how?
Are you asking me? I have no idea! As for typical flowers of the season, the amaryllis is gorgeous, but the one flower I always want to have is the hyacinth! Their scent is one of the scents I associate with the season, so I usually get some just because of that.

8. Your most beautiful DIY Christmas decoration?
Hmm... I’m going to say the gingerbread wolf wood! This is a bit of a private joke... our family name, Susimetsä, means wolf forest, so, last year we decided to make this - three wolves and a forest:


9. Do you have any new ideas for wrapping gifts?
I’m afraid not...

10. What’s your Christmas tree like?
It’s an old (almost 15 years!) plastic tree. The ornaments are mostly red and gold... we have some very nice ones we brought back from Canada and ornaments that my mother collected... but we haven’t even taken them out of their boxes for years, not since our daughter was born. Accidents happen, and it’s better to keep those precious ornaments wrapped up and waiting. We have enough ornaments to cover the entire tree even without them.



11. Holidays aren’t the holidays without...
My husband and daughter. As long as I’m with them, we could spend the holidays anywhere. If I have to mention something else... well, you guessed it: books and chocolate!


7 comments:

  1. Hi Ulla,

    what lovely questions & answers, and beautiful photos. Thanks for sharing.
    Working in retail does tend to give you a bit of a jaded view of Christmas, but this is the first year in a long time where I actually feel a bit Christmassy. I put some decorations up, instead of waiting until Christmas Eve with that (or leaving it up to my partner, as I usually volunteer to work that day). Now all that is missing is a bit of cold and snow...

    I'm actually tempted to try and answer those questions myself, so I just might get back to that later.
    Have a lovely time,
    hugs Kathy

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    1. Hi Kathy,

      thank you for your comment. :)

      Yes, I can imagine it's different when you have to work during the holidays. I'm glad to hear that you're feeling a little Christmassy though! :)

      We've been struggling with the colds etc. (yes, still) so we're a little behind with the preparations this year, but we'll do what we reasonably can and then just rest and take it easy. That's the best part of the holidays anyway! :) We're missing cold weather and snow, too... well, there's a tiny, tiny bit of snow, but now it's raining and it's supposed to get warm, + 8 degrees or so... which is just weird. In June, we had temperatures around + 10, and now it's almost the same in December! Well, at least you can wear the same clothes all year round... :P

      Oh, I'd love to hear your answers so if you feel like answering these questions, I'd be happy to hear about it! :)

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    2. Hi again, dear Ulla,

      well, here I am, on my day off, and I shall make good on my tentative promise and attempt to answer these lovely Christmassy questions.

      1. Are you going to give any presents you made by yourself?

      I'm not very creative this year, so no presents made by me. However, I do make my own Chistmas cards with photos that we took - does that count? ;)

      2. What’s the best present you’ve ever received that was made by the person who gave it to you?

      Oh, hand-knitted socks are the best. My grandmother used to knit socks for us all. Other than that, a good friend made us placemat-quilts complete with the New Zealand flag for Christmas a few years back - they are amazing.

      3. Have you ever made your own advent calendar?

      As children, my mum always made us an advent calender with sweets inside. I made one for my partner a few years back with little surprises and useful little gadgets inside. Lately, I usually get a calender with tiny photos from my better half.

      4. What puts me in the mood for Yule is...

      Darkness, the way the city lights up with all the decorations, candles. Music is tricky, working in retail, it is easy to get extremely tired of Christmas music ;), but we do have a nice collection of non-traditional Christmas music at home which I can usually tolerate.

      5. What’s your best Christmas recipe?

      I make honey cakes, and I love coffee spiced up with gingerbread spices or cocoa.

      6. Have you ever spent the holidays abroad? Where and what was it like?

      I grew up in Western Africa, so our Christmasses were tropical. But in the dark, it was easy enough to imagine snow outside. And getting to go to the beach on Christmas day definitely was a good time. We also spent two Christmasses in the UK with friends when I was a teen, and once we celebrated in the US.

      7. The prettiest flower arrangement for Christmas is made how?

      Oh dear... I am sooooo not a flower person... Especially after an amaryllis given to me by my boss as a kind gesture managed to topple over and tip the vase, spilling the water onto the hardwood floor, and neither of us was at home... So nowadays I settle for a few pine branches throughout the place, and nothing else.

      8. Your most beautiful DIY Christmas decoration?

      I love your wolfwood! Beautiful. My stepdad, who used to work in an aluminium plant, made a beautiful aluminium sculpture of Mary and Joseph, which we put up every year.

      9. Do you have any new ideas for wrapping gifts?

      Once again... no, not really. ;)

      10. What’s your Christmas tree like?

      Again, non traditional. It's a tree-shaped, metal candle holder, about 1.5 m high, with branches and roots, which we decorate for Christmas with a few ornaments that we've collected over the years.

      11. Holidays aren’t the holidays without...

      Family. Gingerbread (the German "Lebkuchen" :)). Watching movies or reading. Sleeping late.

      All the best for Christmas, have a wonderful and hopefully relaxed time!
      Hugs, Kathy

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    3. Hi Kathy,

      thank you so much for commenting - and such lovely answers, too! :)

      The cards definitely count! And they're wonderful, very very pretty and, what's best, truly unique.

      Looks like we're both fans of hand-knitted socks! They are the best.

      Non-traditional Christmas music sounds great... I'm okay with the traditional songs, but after a while, they do get a little boring, and I'm always interested in trying something new. So if you have any recommendations, I'd be happy to hear them!

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    4. Hi again,

      well, as to the not-so traditional Christmas music I can really recommend "Raskasta Joulua", which was given to us by dear Finnish friends. You might have heard of it? ;) ;D Can't go wrong with that.
      And another favourite is "Christmas Chants" by Gregorian/Masters of Chant.

      Happy Holidays!
      Love, Kathy

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    6. Hi Kathy,

      Haha, "Raskasta Joulua", hmm, sounds familiar... ;)

      I'll have to look into "Christmas Chants", thanks for the recommendation.

      This year, I came across Annie Lennox's "A Christmas Cornucopia" and I quite like some of the songs. One of my old favourites is some sort of a "Celtic Christmas" album - I don't know how much it actually has to do with anything Celtic, but it's nice and a little different. :)

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