Celebrations

The past few weeks have been full of reasons to celebrate something. In Finland we celebrate the "Name Day" like a small birthday. All (almost all) names are listed in the calendar, and so everyone will know whose day it is. When I was at work, we used to buy pastry to our closest colleagues on our name day, and many jobs have a tradition of bringing candy for everyone when you celebrate. Usually no gifts are given. The name day can also be a reason for visiting friends, you can just phone and ask if they will make coffee if you bring some ice cream. When I was young it was expected that the family was prepared to get visitors on short notice.

Mr. Kotkarankki and I have our name days only five days apart so we usually celebrate them with one cake on the weekend closest to one of the days. I baked this strawberry cake last week for us:

On Friday it was Great Auntie Saima's name day (she passed away over 40 years ago), and my sister Maija happened to come from Germany for her summer holiday on that day. She came to see us with her husband on their way to our mother's house. We had some cake and coffee, and celebrated Saima, too. My brother-in-law proved right something Stephanie quoted during the Time For Tea Swap about men and tea cosies. Well, he wasn't even alone in the room.

Today we had another strawberry cake for our wedding anniversary, and on Tuesday we celebrate not only the French Revolution but the day we first met, which was 30 years ago. To avoid getting too many calories Mr. K will go fly fishing for the day and I will skip cooking lunch and have just some salad instead. I hope to sew something too. I have only been making things I can't show yet.