”Merry Christmas to everyone” said Eliisa quietly first in the morning in the attic room. Christmas eve at Märket, we all thought while slowly getting out of the sleeping backs.

Room was cool after the night and quickly we were back in the reality of the lighthouse life. Breakfast and fireplaces needed some attention again to make our life comfortably. We knew also that this was the day to do some cleaning and to get all the bird outcomes off from the kitchen floor.

Due to the wind there was some trouble to get the fire places to work smoothly without too much smoke inside. Maybe that was why our problem later in the evening was too high inside temperature: we were forced to take some of the food out from the kitchen shelf and take outside clothes off and put back on while going out of the warm kitchen and coming back in.

Just after the traditional Christmas porridge with almond (Ville got it for some luck) and listening to the declaration of the Christmas peace from Turku of Finland we headed to outside to enjoy the wonderful windy winter sea weather. More chops to inside, some chops under the water heater - which is outside by the way. A lot of water from the sea to make Christmas ”sauna” possible later in the evening. Well, bath in the cold Little Märket with a half a bucket of warm water. Even if it sounds bad to go out to -9 degrees and 14m/s wind it was absolutely great once one was inside the Little Märket. Time stopped right there and no need to hurry out from the bath.



Just when it was turning dark we were ready to start enjoy a traditional old time Christmas eve. Eliisa prepared some spawn breads while Klaus and Ville brought Christmas tree from the downstairs to the kitchen and Heidi was getting ready to give our first interview for Radio Suomi.

After the refreshing Märket winter bath experience we had wonderful snacks ready. Even if there were five breads for everyone we ate them all at one seat. At the same time we noticed that we reached the new inside temperature record of new Märket era, 19,5 degrees on winter time – too hot we said.

Ville had some business downstairs as usual. No one wondered why he spent half an hour out of the kitchen when Santa suddenly surprised everyone. Especially faces of Klaus and Eliisa were worth of seeing. Heidi propably saw the reindeers landing near to shelter as she was just laughing when she saw Santa coming in.



Santa brought a long wanted gift to Märket: a big wooden porridge spoon and some kitchen towels. From the towels can also be found receipts for different meals.

After Santa's visit everyone was hungry again and the Märkets guards decided to skip the long report and just send some pictures.

Traditional Christmas dinner took place while wind shouted outside. The guards enjoyed the evening and spent some wonderful hours together without any hurry before going to sleep.



Next morning took place late, just as some of us had wished in the evening. ”It would be so great to wake up just to see it's already eleven AM.” And so it was, with the amazing view from the window of the attic room: huge waves hitting the rock of Märket.

Last rice porridges were prepared with the routine already. After last nights experience we decided to let the fireplaces wait for the evening. Quick look to weather forecast promised some winter storm so we decided to carry a lot of chops inside during the day.

We also knew that this might be the last day to get nice photos outside so we were out within the minutes after the breakfast. All the clothes and safety equipments on. For a couple of hours we just enjoyed the power of
nature in form of wind and waves.

Eliisa lost her clove to the sea and Klaus went inside to put the dry suit on. Well, the dry suit was for getting some beautiful photos from the eastern part of the Märket. The springs were too big to go to the Eastern side with normal shoes.



As daylight is so short, it was soon time to go back inside. After the weather forecast and view to the sea we decided to take all the equipments in from the front yard, including the water heater.

It was only about 13 degrees in the kitchen and much cooler in the other rooms. Fireplaces in the second floor were a bit
problematic. Wind was blowing the smoke back in but finally fire took place in them nicely.

The attic room caused some more troubles and finally we had to open the door to the roof of the lighthouse to get all the smoke out. It was no wonder as we heard from the radio that the wind was blowing 18m/s from the north east.

Now it's time to prepare some food again while we are excited to see the results of todays photographing and especially how the weather will change for tomorrow.

From Märket,

Eliisa, Heidi, Klaus and Ville

(From the webmaster on the continent: they also gave great report to Radio Suomi at 5.45 PM and will do so also on Sunday at around 6 PM. The radio got some 700 extra people to visit this web page!)