Delightful December Part 1 - Christmas

Christmas

December has changed to a new year Christmas has been celebrated, have been shot to the sky, food and company of the family and friends has been enjoyed. Now it is time to start a new chapter but before that I would like to go back to the month of festivities. 

This Christmas we spent here in Malta without any longer holiday. It is nice to stop and relax even for a few days. We had the Christmas day celebrations at our home this year. Family, good food and some presents topped with music and candles. 

Mdina Glass Christmas tree in Valletta

Christmas Eve

Kurt Calleja with his band

We celebrated Christmas eve listening to live music in Hugo's Pub Paceville. Maltese singer Kurt Calleja with his band was performing. Night was great and live show was brilliant!

Indian style food for the evening

Traditions

Christmas is a feast to spend with family. This year we mixed some Finnish and Maltese traditions. Menu included Maltese and Finnish dishes, and in Finnish style, many different courses. In Finland our main day of Christmas is Christmas eve. This year we celebrated it on Christmas day in Maltese style.

In our house will be no Christmas without a decorated tree. Presents have been part of our Christmas always, so was this year. Their amount has reduced since our childhood and any more they are not as important as when we were young. Still today I like the idea of giving something small to your loved ones, especially if it is not usual thing to do. Making someone smile, it is the greatest thing

Special beautiful tree decoration 

Gift tree 

Food

Food is the key at Christmas. On the menu we had appetizers, ham, finnish casseroles, creamy vegetables, cheeses and many more. As a dessert plum cheesecake in a glass and Christmas cake. We had such a hurry in preparing all the food and didn't get a chance to snap any more dish photos. 

Colours of decor and table setting were blue and gold accompanied with white. These stylish and fresh colors formed great atmosphere next to candles. I love to create beautiful and matching details in the festive decoration.

Dessert

Tiny Gingerbread house

Final touch for the dinner, the dessert. Traditional finnish sweets and maltese Christmas cake. My favourite, creamy cheesecake was this time in a glass spiced with cinnamon and plum. 

Finnish touch for dessert table, plum tarts

Evening relaxation in candle light

Happy New Year!

Our Christmas celebrations of the year 2015 was memorable. 

I hope you had a great year and enjoyed Christmas with your loved ones as well.

Wishing you health happiness and memorable new year!

I would love to hear your comments of the way you celebrated Christmas, let me know in the comments.

Love, Annastiina

Malta & Finland

Living abroad, far away from my home country, family and friends is not always easy. 

I do go back to Finland few times a year and spend most of my holidays there, still I feel sometimes it is not enough. There are so many important persons back in Finland and I would love to be there for them and spend time with them more. 
But the problem is I feel same here in Malta. I have got to meet and know so many beautiful souls here, who have welcomed me with open arms and I can proudly say that I now have two home countries. Actually it is wrong to call this a problem, I think it's more a blessing to have families in two countries.

In the past five years I have grown my roots here to this tiny island in the Mediterranean.

Below here I will present to you some things I love in both of my home countries.

Love for Malta:

Great places and views, beautiful churches and countryside. Malta is very small country but it has a lot to offer. And the best part is that it only takes about an hour to drive from North to South. Its small size makes it easy to access everywhere in no time (excluding traffic hours and public happenings). Despite its small size it is very highly populated, more than 400.000 people. 
This Mediterranean island has a lot of historical tales to tell and old ancient places to see.
I have fallen inlove with Maltese seaside and clear turquoise waters, sunny days and warm weather, village feasts and fireworks. Mediterranean food is also must to mention. 

Upper Barrakka Gardens in Valletta

Mdina

Below The Capital Valletta

Love for Finland:

Finland as part of Northern Europe is very different from Malta. Its four seasons, thousands of lakes and never ending forrests. Finland has over 5 million population and is surrounded by neighbour countries. In Finland I love nature and fresh air, open space and silent countryside. Great food, cold winters and snow are missed very often in the heat of Mediterranean summer.

Tammerkoski river in Tampere

View over lake Pyhäjärvi from tower of Pyynikki in Tampere

Finnish fish caught fresh from the lake and blueberry pie from hand picked berries from the forest

View from the plane in December over the capital Helsinki

Wintery road in December

Backyard (or backforest:) of my childhood home in August

// Thank you for reading, I would love to hear what you think about this post!

All the photos are taken by me. //

 Annastiina