November is ending, but the November mood is not.
Ken hasn’t found his Christmas spirit yet:
- Maybe I’ll just force myself to start decorating and then I will find it.
Kaarna is not encouraging:
- Or maybe we’ll just continue suffering the November pain and skip the Christmas completely. The weather forecast says it’ll be raining all the time, no hope for any snow. This winter will be just as hopeless as the last one was.
It’s pouring rain and the yard is horribly muddy.
Ken puts some lanterns on the stairs, and that’ll be enough for today’s outdooring.
The Independence Day of Finland - the happiest and the safest country in the World.
To be honest, if Finland is all that, Ken and Kaarna feel sorry for the rest of the countries:
Recently our country has become increasingly cruel and dangerous to many groups: the immigrants and their offspring, the sexual and gender minorities, the disabled and the sick, the unemployed and the poor. Even though the society is nowadays good only for the rich and powerful, we can be thankful for our still versatile and beautiful nature.
The little Christmas tree that Kaarna just stole is soaking wet and drips water all over the floor.
- Maybe Canada will take us as climate refugees? They still have the normal winter, right?
Ken is happy that Kaarna does all the dirty work for him. A stolen tree is not a sin when it’s stolen by somebody else.
- I always take the trees under the power lines. They’d be dead soon anyway and left to rotten, Kaarna says proudly.
Oh no! Ken missed the date when it was still cheaper to send the Christmas cards! Sending a card on a normal price to all these friends would eat the whole holiday budget. Ken feels very disappointed with himself, but Kaarna says:
- Well, Mr. Perfectionist. You’ll just have to settle for a boring virtual card now.
- Yes… but on the bright side we can take part in @sulokatti_ ’s Christmas card challenge at the same time! Any ideas?
- At least it seems from the outside that there’s some Christmas spirit in this household, Ken thinks when he hangs the wreaths on the front doors.
Because of the daily rains the village Christmas calender set up is better to be placed on the porch than on the side of the road.
The darkness is so black now, that it seems to be sucking every bit of light that people try to create.
It even ruins the village Christmas calendar.
Ken makes sure he'll be visible for the cars though.
But Santa sends a wonderful Christmas miracle to Melukylä.
It’s called The Cold North Wind and it brought a few flakes of snow, froze the ground and started to clear the sky!
Ken and Kaarna rush to the only hill of Melukylä to actually see the sun.
Oh how good it feels to let the sun make your eyes blind and the cold air to freeze your face!
On Christmas Eve Kaarna goes for a walk and comes across a lost dude dressed as Santa.
After giving him the right directions she continues peeking through windows and hopes to accidentally see how other people celebrate their Christmas Eve.
Of course some people feel obliged to visit their old parents.
For some the gifts are the most important thing,
while for others it´s singing the Christmas carols.
Some dedicate this evening to relax the best way they can think of.
And of course for some the food is above everything else.
Veli and Ritva have spent the Christmas Eve with Ken and Veli’s mother and on Boxing Day they bring the leftovers. Since Ken and Kaarna skipped the holidays, they are not fed up with sweets and pastries like everybody else at this point.
Veli hands Ken a paper bag that contains a pair of tiny leather boots and says:
- Mom sent you these, she thought you might want to keep them. She's throwing away all the junk in the house.
- My childhood LAPIKKAAT!
The boots take Ken back to his childhood:
- Oh I remember the Christmas I got these. You were only a baby back then. But didn't you inherit these after my feet grew out of them?
- I think I did, but my toes froze in them, so I refused to wear them! Pure torture, Veli reminisces.
- True. But still, such cool boots! I was so proud of them!