I never wrote about my second Christmas in Tartu, which turned out to be a traditional Estonian Christmas tucked away in a country home in Valgamaa. On Christmas Eve I had politely refused Märt's offer to come to the country home and spend Christmas with his family, because I felt too shy. I had met him in an English conversation course for Estonian adults.
He called again the next morning and somehow convinced me to go, and it turned out to be very nice. From my perspective it seems like children get to participate in Christmas more in Estonia than back home. Santa visits them at their home and they each perform something for him, whether it's reading poetry, singing a song, playing an instrument, etc. He rewards them with their presents.
Santa came to Märt's country home in Valgamaa. The kids performed several pieces, some of which involved a recorder. I performed a poem. I had been learning Estonian but I still chickened out and read the poem in English. He gave me a small white box. The little 6 year old boy beside me pointed at my box and then pointed at his very large box to make sure I was aware of it. This made me laugh a lot.
Then we had an Estonian Christmas dinner with blood sausage and jam, potatoes, and sour cabbage. There was also some lamb from the neighbor's flock. Everyone always asks how I like blood sausage - I feel pretty neutral toward it, as I do toward most food in Estonia. It tastes fine and it's suitable fuel for the body.
There are a few Estonian food items which I really enjoy - pretty much everything Märt's parents made, always homegrown/home-made/self-hunted, etc. Before I left, his dad gave me a deer sausage he had hunted and prepared, which had a very good flavor that I hadn't experienced before. Some of my favorites were their smoked fish and homemade liver paste.
Here's a picture from that Christmas in Tartu. Their pet bird, Uku, is there in the background. He died before I went back to America (R.I.P. Uku).
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