At this time of the year 'Pikku Joulus' (literally Little Christmas in English) are great excuses to meet up with people you’ve been neglecting for the last twelve months. This year I was invited to my first three Pikku Joulus! You can imagine my excitement . . !

It was 21st November and time to celebrate the upcoming Christmas. Everyone who was invited was asked to bring a typical dish from their home country so I made my Mum’s version of 'rum balls.' After trawling through numerous recipes on the internet, I figured that Mum’s cooking is still the best. The invitation said that the party started at 7pm but people were still coming in at half past eight. Obviously, this was not a Finns-only party. All sorts of dishes were slowly amassing into an assortment of tempting looking food. Looking at all this I started to think: “Why are we still waiting for those few people. You snooze, you loose! It’s as simple as that.” But apparently even we foreigners had already learnt something from the Finns so we politely waited for everyone.

Finally we were given permission to start eating. That reminded me of some school rule where everyone had to be seated and ready before we could open our mouths. Anyway, I dug in and it was great. There were around 20 different dishes and of course I wanted to try them all. Half way through my stomach started to give me warning signs that, maybe, it was time to stop. But no way was I doing that in the middle and leaving so many delicious looking platters untouched.

I filled up my plate for the second time. Then I went for my third time . . . but then I still hadn’t had any dessert. I saved the best for last and because of that I simply had to have it. A piece of oven filled apple, one Finnish pastry and a piece of yoghurt cake. After a short while I had only one more piece of cake left and I felt like I would explode all over the place if I put anything else inside me. And it got much worse. Soon all I wanted to do was either lie down or throw up. Unfortunately neither of those two options was available at that moment so I tried to suck it in and get through the evening. Minutes soon seemed like hours and I couldn’t pay attention to what the others were saying anymore.

After the food it was time for some games! Which was great because I was trying not to be violently sick! First we were divided into four groups of five for 'pantomime.' When I was in Elementary school, I used to go to drama class and I really loved it so I thought: “This is the game for me!” Apparently I wasn’t the only one thinking like that. Everybody wanted to do the task and in a situation like that I usually stay in the back and observe. And that is exactly what I did. As I am not yet totally comfortable with the Finnish quietness and shyness I was shocked how much I would have preferred it during this game. Other teams had to guess what one team was trying to show and the whole game in one word was LOUD. People screaming over each other seemed to annoy me and a small amount of other Finns. I was shocked: “Am I actually starting to think like a Finn?” I decided that I will not think more about that right now.

Next up was a quiz and the topic of the evening was Christmas. Everyone was very enthusiastic but then the questions started. I had no idea there is so much to know about Christmas. Questions were quite difficult and half way through we decided that we want to do only half of the quiz, which was twenty questions. I still didn’t remember who wrote those Christmas songs or when was the first time Santa Claus became the Christmas icon.

But nobody cared anymore because it was time for the presents and a special visitor. Yes, believe it or not, Santa Claus himself came to share some words of wisdom with us. He even took some of us into his lap. Since we were all good during the year each got an early Christmas present. After everyone had a present in his hand we all set down into a circle. Santa said goodbye and the exchanging of the presents began. Every one got to throw two dices and if a number six fell, you had to pass on the present you were holding to your left. When number one fell, the person who threw it could open the present he had at that time. And so the game went on until everyone got a one. I got an ice-cream making kit . . . due to my feeling sick I didn't want to use it just then. But Santa apparently knew that I love ice-cream.

Going home felt good but I had guilty thoughts going through my mind: “I can’t believe it I did it again! Apparently I have no self control when it comes to large amounts of food.” Then I say to myself that next time will be different. But it never is.