Go on, grab a coffee and some of my mascarpone-chocolate pie and let’s recap the week’s happenings while we’re at it.
On Saturday my goddaughter, Lily, came to stay over. I picked her up from her home and we drove to Helsinki to marvel at some of the Christmas decorations around the city.
We also had a look at Stockmann’s Christmas window. Lily enjoyed pointing out the little details.
We then went for a bout of shopping to buy a little present for the Christmas Tree Charity Campaign. A new hotel in Helsinki – F6 – had a Christmas Market in their courtyard which I wanted to visit and it just happened that they were taking part in the campaign. The presents go to children in need who might not get any presents otherwise. Such a lovely idea and just in case you are interested, the campaign is still on till the 20th December!
The hotel had gorgeous hand-made Karelian pies on sale. So whilst my goddaughter decorated gingerbread cookies, I just had to buy 20 of them to take home!
After our visit to the hotel, we had to quickly make our way to Espoo – to the Teatteri Hevosenkenkä (Horseshoe Theatre). We had tickets to see a Christmas puppet theatre called Urpon ja Turpon Joulu. It’s about two stuffed teddy bears who wonder what the fuss about Christmas is about. It was very heartwarming and just the thing to get you into the Christmas mood.
On Sunday we went out to the playground and watched two movies! One was a Tinkerbell movie and the other one was Cinderella. I loved the latter! We also visited the Children’s Town at the Helsinki City Museum. Lily took this photo of me and a light figurine gentleman. You might remember these fun figures from my post about Lux Helsinki.
Inside the museum you can find different kinds of rooms with hands-on activities. This room was made into an old classroom. I had one of those vintage desks at our summer cottage when I was little. The only difference was that it had been painted bright red!
As the museum is right next to the Senate Square, we could not resist the lure of the Christmas Market.
And the strongest lure was the carousel! Unfortunately the queue was very long but we waited it out and even I got on for a bit of fun.
Tuesday was a public holiday as it was Finland’s 99th Independence Day. Next year will be huge as it will be a full hundred! Anyway, we had a little get-together at our house for which I made a mushroom soup and some cocktail bites. In the background you can see Manchego cheese with fig jam on top. That’s reindeer rolls and small rye chips with blue-cheese filling in front.
I also made some sliders which were delicious. There were three different ones – chorizo, salmon and crayfish (with lots of cilantro and chili!).
What would Independence Day be without cake?
Wednesday was our son’s year’s Christmas party. The kids took a video for #mannequinchallenge and it got me thinking that we should do that at work!
On Thursday evening I met hubby in Helsinki. We went to have a look at the new restaurant “world” upstairs in the Kamppi shopping centre – Kortteli. There’s quite a few interesting restaurants there to try out! For example Beijing8 which serves dumplings. We went to Bastardo, the Italian restaurant. Unfortunately the pizzas did not convince me and I won’t be visiting the restaurant again.
How has your week been? Do take a moment to share in the comments below!
xx
The Life and Travels of Mrs Suvi 
Gorgeous set of Christmas style photos. Couple days ago we visited Helsinki Christmas Market, but after the pause of four years, I was little bit disappointed, because there were only few stands selling real Christmas items. 🙂 This is my opinion.
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Sorry to hear about your experience. I hope to have time to visit again before it closes. I personally think it’s crazy to close it on the 22nd. How about all the tourists out there?!
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Well, maybe we had bigger expectations than what we finally experienced. We people are very different and ours were at high level. I got some nice photos for later use. Concerning tourists, they obviously enjoyed all the Christmas things.
Have a great start of new week.
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The cake looks wonderful! What a nice idea for decoration 🙂 I haven’t been yet to the City Museum after the reconstruction, but after reading your post I put another mental note to visit some time soon. There is lots of work going on during the week as everyone seems to finish everything before the Christmas. I was also doing some trip planning and bookings for the next year – Rome in February. On Saturday we went to Hector concert, which was lots of fun! All in all, feels like the time runs super fast, there’s lots to do and I can’t wait for Christmas to arrive 🙂
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Hi Elena! When I went to the City Museum with my goddaughter, there was only one of those blue light figurines in the courtyard. I’ve understood there’s more now, so you should check it out! This week really is busy at work, next work should be more relaxed… I hope. I love your trip planning, I also dream of going to Rome. Great with the Hector concert, I hope he sang some Christmas tunes to get you in the Christmas spirit 🙂 Wishing you a great week ❤ xxx
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Did you try the dumplings at Kamppi? I’ve never had any but it’s been on my to-do list after watching Masterchef Australia, where they go on and on about dumplings!!! 😀
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I haven’t tried those yet but the restaurant is so on my list! I love dumplings 🤗 Let me know how you liked them once you’ve been.
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good… I have my cup of coffee here… that food though, omg, everything looks so fresh and yummy… how do you manage to stay so elegant with so much food :)) I’m happy you had such a wonderful week, have a great weekend too, Suvi 🙂
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Hahaha I must say that there’s been a bit too much food lately and too little aquajogging, time to step up 😉 I hope you had a great weekend 💕
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oh my… what a walk I need another cuppa:) and that food… good thing you walk a lot:) yu had me at marzipan :0 my favorite!! I just loved your winter walk.. I have to go back and look again. and me? I’m getting ready to spoil our only grandchild.:) with lots and lots of educational toys:)
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Ooh that sounds wonderful, I hope you had fun playing 💕
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Suvi, that Christmas Market was Too Tempting. Wish I could hop into the computer screen and savor them all. You made so many delicious dishes, I Loved this spread “Manchego cheese with fig jam on top. That’s reindeer rolls and small rye chips with blue-cheese filling”. And Oh The Cake was very pretty and I’m sure I can finish it all by myself.
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Thanks Cattie 💕 Heheh the cake was delish, it’s too bad every bite is gone now!
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Ooohhhhhhhhhh. I WANT CAKE , NOW.
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A lovely post with lots of gorgeous food! I love carousels too. And the museum looked fun, sounds like you had a lovely week!
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Thanks Georgina, it sure was 💕💕 It’s not so often you get to go on a carousel at this age 😎
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So lovely to spend time with your goddaughter Suvi and your food looks very tasty for the Independence celebrations. Interestingly I’ve never heard rolls referred to as ‘sliders’ before – but the fillings looked very tasty.
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Yes the little rolls were called sliders in the recipe I used. You could make tiny burgers out of them too! Hopefully my goddaughter will visit again for a sleepover during the Christmas break 😊
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