Travelog for: Hueso

This morning we drove to a park in the city. There was a Christmas party and Lucia came to sing! Lucia is more a swedish tradition - to bring light in the dark - but it origins from Italian Saint Lycy. Every year they choose one Lucia in many cities. Teenage girls apply and the public may vote for the most suitable (from 6-10 contestants). These girls then visit hospitals and retirement homes etc. to bring light to people's lives.

We listened to the Lucia (and her 2 "runner-ups") sing, ate porridge and gingerbread cookies and danced around the tree When we got home we noticed it was allmost -20 degrees Celsius! No wonder the porridge cooled down fast 

My host makes a different kind of gingerbread building/something every year - she got bored with the traditional gingerbread house years ago. This year was time to make a gingerbread carousel! We helped her with it and it turned out very tasty 

After the gingerbread carousel we helped the kids decorate the tree. It stands in a bucket because my host noticed (after all the hard sawing) that it didn't fit in the pedestal it was meant to... But it looks great this way too!

It's suddenly very snowy here    Snowploughs have a lot to do. But everyone is very excited that it's going to be a white christmas! 

In the morning of Christmas Eve my host made Plum Pastries also known as Christmas Pastries also known as Star Pastries (see recipe here). My host prefers them fresh and warm so she makes them "in the last minute". They're very tasty! 

It's Christmas Eve! The day Finns celebrate Christmas. In the morning we had rice porridge (a tradition), for lunch/dinner we had traditional ham and casseroles (gratins) etc.  We weren't at home, so my hostfamily didn't get their traditional burritos on Christmas Eve  I spent this Christmas with Gary Boldie, Leonard, Banyo and Foster Care Home visitors Alfonz and FoxForce 

For dessert we had for example gingerbread cookies: another carousel! This one was made with snowmen 

In this link, you'll find some traditional Finnish Christmas recipes

Later in the evening Santa came for a visit! He brought us some gifts as well. We all got "stamp magnets"!

The rest of the night we ate some more - also and especially candy  My host had got us a box of Finnish chocolate. We didn't leave much for the next day... 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Happy New Year! Onnellista uutta vuotta!

We cast tin which is a tradition. They say that you can predict the coming year from the shadow of the tin. Our tins looked like Finnish birds but the shadows looked like australian animals! Or at least that how my host interpreted them...    Although, last year they got a lot of travel/sea shadows and they did go on two cruises!

Later we watched some fireworks. The neighbours had quite a few of them. We just sat indoors (safe & warm) and enjoyed the show 

Happy New Year! Onnellista uutta vuotta!

We're not in Argentina anymore... It's been snowing for 3 weeks now and this is what it looks like  It's -15 degrees Celsius which accoriding to my host "wasn't bad"  She started explaining how it's different when it's windy and cold and how in Lappland it can be colder in Celsius but still doesn't "feel bad" as it's not one bit windy  I lost track after the "wasn't bad" - I was freezing my furry butt off! Oh yes, it is pretty and interesting but I was glad when my host put me back in her warm pocket...

Today arrived a new tv: a red haired girl named Meleca. We were just leaving for a Postcrossing meetup in Helsinki so she arrived but continued travelling at once  We had a chance to get to know her in the buss on our way to Helsinki.

My host met other postcrossers at a café next to the main post office - as usual. They had coffee and talked - and wrote postcards. They seemed to have lots of fun but this time it didn't include taking many photos of us (sometimes my host does that). 

There were other people's t-voyagers as well!

This was a busy party weekend for my host: her daughters had birthdays. I helped my host make cakes; Hello Kitty cake, 8 cake, rainbow cake... They turned out pretty awesome and tasty  Outside my host made ice balloons  She filled some latex balloons with water and put them outside to freeze (it took 1-2 days to freeze, depending on the temperature). they turned out so cool and festive that half of them were stolen! My host caught the boys who had done it and gave them a speech and told their parents. The kids apologized and filled new balloons. So it ended well - for us at least.

There was also a disco! We even had disco balls! It was a great party 

Wufff! I went on a walk on the Baltic Sea  Remember the shore I went in the summer? Yep, this is it. Only that the sea was covered with thick 30cm ice and people were walking/skiing/skating on it. My host said people also drove on it! 

It felt really weird. Walking on the Baltic Sea. 

It's still winter in here! We had a few days with + degrees so we were able to do a snowslide and this snow Totoro The hole in his stomach is for a candle

Finally my host remembered to take photos of me in the Finnish Sauna  In Finland every household has a sauna - or in case of a block of flats, then there usually is one sauna for the whole highhouse. Anyway. This is my host's sauna.

Sauna is a room that you heat up (there are saunas that are heated with wood and saunas that are heated with electricity), preferably 60-80 degrees Celsius (that varies, some people like it even hotter). Then you take a shower (just to get wet, it's not pleasant to be dry in a sauna) before you enter the sauna (naked!). In sauna you just sit and relax and maybe throw some water on the hot stones (to get more heat and steam). Sauna relaxes your muscles and opens your skin pores, which makes you clean from the inside 

After a while (when you feel like it) you go to the shower again to get wet and re-enter the sauna. You can repeat it as many times as you want. In the end you shower to wash yourself.

In summerhouses people also have saunas. There it's tradition to make (or buy) a birch whisk with which you beat yourself gently in the sauna. The whisk has the leaves on so it won't hurt.

There are saunas in gyms and swimming halls but there men & women are divided in separate saunas. Otherwise, with friends and family, it's normal to go to sauna together.

Finns even have a Sauna Society!

The weather is now warmer and thus more wet too. We've been indoors playing - for example this Moomin Memory game. Moomins are one important part of Finland so we got to know them better.

It was one very interesting match! Unfortunately I didn't win... Leonard beat us all 

Here are some of the Moomin folk names in English and Finnish:
Little My - Pikku Myy
Moomin(troll) - Muumi(peikko)
Moominpappa - Muumipappa
Moominmamma - Muumimamma
Snufkin - Nuuskamuikkunen (boy, that's one long name in Finnish!)
Snif - Nipsu
Hemulen - Hemuli
Snorkmaiden - Niiskuneiti
Snork - Niisku
Stinky - Haisuli
Mrs Fillyjonk - Rouva Vilijonkka
The Hattenfatteners - Hattivatit

And they live in Moominvalley - Muumilaakso

Happy Easter!
Hauskaa pääsiäistä!