Easter means decorating eggs, and onion skin eggs are an absolute must according to my mum.

This year we learned two new tricks. One: wetting the onion skins before putting them around the eggs makes them a lot easier to handle. Two: aluminium foil can be used for wrapping the onion-skin-wrapped eggs even though it is not permeable, and is a lot more flexible than paper.

Påskgubbe and påskkärringar, about to fly off to Blåkulla.

Too busy unpacking, shopping, cooking and entertaining to have any time left for spending on photography.

We had our traditional annual Christmas baking day and made gingerbread cookies and lussebullar and mince pies. All turned out delicious, as usual: each recipe has been tweaked over the years until it is so good that we cannot think of any way to improve them. The gingerbread cookies are seriously spicy, the saffron buns plump and fluffy and flavourful.

We’ve gotten a bit bored with just making the same old same old each year, so the saffron buns get more and more fanciful in design, and the gingerbread cookies more and more decorated. This year’s bun designs included Minecraft-themed picks, axes and hoes. Adrian joined us in decorating cookies for the first time (it takes some strength and dexterity) and made non-traditional designs – such as green blobs, and using the glaze as glue to stick cookies on top of each other.

Dark chocolate brittle with chopped almonds, dried figs, cranberries and apricots, and mini-marshmallows.

Adrian at preschool, drawing and writing some important thing, surrounded by Christmas.

ESLAND HEAD JÕULO

At Adrian’s preschool the staff have put up “Merry Christmas” on the wall in various languages. I believe it’s the languages spoken by kids or staff at the preschool: English, French, Finnish, Kurdish, Greek, Arabic, Assyrian, etc.

Adrian had apparently noticed that Estonian was not present and corrected this.

I hung up the Advent calendar. This year we have an activity calendar again, with activities ranging from massage to making Christmas ornaments.

The strips of paper all look the same. I wonder how many times I’ll have to unroll and reorganize them to fit them around yet another birthday party or Christmas event.