Our Christmas - Part I

Our first Christmas with Matilda - I was really looking forward to it. :)

In Finnish tradition I put the ham in the oven the night before Christmas Eve so that it could bake until morning. This is when Christmas starts for me.

I really love this photo. 

My dad arrived Thursday before Christmas Eve (my mom spent the 24th with my grandmother in Finland and flew in the next day) and was such a great help with Matilda. They really bonded and I loved seeing them together.

 I reserved the week before Christmas for baking and preparations and I managed to make the two pastries above and the Chocolate Truffels and Mozartkugeln below. 

For the past few years we have invited our missionaries for Christmas Eve and it's always such an awesome experience. Mikael picked them up at 8.30 am, I prepared some Christmas candy and cookies, they went to the sauna and watched Elf afterwards (they are allowed to watch the movies the family watches on Christmas Eve :)).

 We celebrated at Mikaels sister Camilla's house with almost the whole family from Mikaels side.

 Mikael built this Jenga game and it was a big hit!

Afterwards we spent the evening at our house watching Madagaskar 3 with Mikaels sister Evelina, her husband and the missionaries. 

Too bad I didn't take a photo of all the presents I wrapped! I was sitting in Matildas future room until 2 am and they turned out really nice..

We talked about starting our own traditions as a family and one thing we already figured out was to just give one present to our kids on the 24th and the rest on the morning of Christmas Day (it is common to give all presents on Christmas Eve). 

Tomorrow I'll show you what we gave Matilda and December 25th.