Before we head deep down into the holidays, I want to wish you all a very Happy Christmas! We arrived at my parent’s place a few days ago – the night in the night train was fine for the kids and more or less sleepless for us, but we have had some chances to recover so far. By now, we are in the middle of the pre-christmas madness and a little bit into the real family christmas feeling already. My brother and his family arrived on Sunday and since then I have had several undisturbed dinners because my niece is so keen on the hobbit that she doesn’t want to give him away anymore. She is carrying him around with an endurance that I have lost a long time ago. The hobbit is absolutely excited about all the friendly and laughing faces around him, there are just small moments every now and then when he feels completely overwhelmed and cries a bit (just to stop it the next second again because hey, there’s someone smiling at him and he needs to smile back!). Only drawback is his running nose and I have my fingers crossed that it doesn’t turn into a real cold!
The little one is as excited as the hobbit to see so much family around her. Especially my nephew doesn’t have a free second anymore as the little one occupies him with all kind of games. The excitement and hence the slight lack of sleep (and her age in general) have caused quite a few tantrums, but every morning I am confident that the new day will bring nothing but happiness and smiling kids (ha! How good that my memory suffers from breastfeeding dementia!).
We started to fill up (and empty again) my mothers cookie jars, we visited the christmas market several times (newest culinary discovery there: Trdelnik! Oh sugary goodness!), went to the playground, are finishing the last christmas gifts, had beautiful family music (piano, flute, violin and vocal….the little one sat on the couch and we couldn’t tell whether she was somewhere in a state of shock or whether she was enjoying it) and played games every single evening since my brother arrived. (Note: family music and games are an essential part of my family’s christmas tradition. The first one can only be endured with several glasses of mulled wine or hot toddies, the second is chaotic and entertaining enough without it).
I had my first massage today – the masseur tried to soften my my muscles for thirty minutes and didn’t manage to do so – and we are still trying to convince my father that the heating is broken. It is starting to be very chilly inside and both Karsten and I had an ice-cold shower by now and we sincerely hope that it’ll be fixed before the christmas holidays!
This afternoon, my sister with her family will arrive and we’ll bring the christmas madness to a new stage!
In that sense I wish a wonderful time and I will be back in a few days! Merry Christmas!!
familial entropy 
Merry Christmas to you all! Lots of kisses from Finland ♡