Our Thanks to them all. The very well decorated.

                                     
Can't help but think of those serving in the military around this holiday season. How lonely it has to be for them not to be with their loved ones at this special time. Lots of love, and special prayers go out to all of those who put on the uniform everyday to fight another day for our freedom, protecting and serving. I'm honored to know & have known such great men & women like this in my life so far. Thank you Thank you Thank you!! It is much appreciated.

Merry Christmas 2011

Chloe in her reindeer shirt MiMi bought her

Troy Jr in his reindeer shirt MiMi bought him

                                       

With Christmas already come & gone, there are still lots of things to do for the new year. We've already taken the tree down and most of the decorations are picked up. Christmas was very good for all of us & Santa definitely was very good to our children. It was a great time had by all. Christmas party in the afternoon at the Wood family's house was great surrounded by a group of wonderful people. Now I am just looking forward to what the new year will bring to us. 

I've been sitting back & reflecting on the last years of my life & I remember someone asking me way back when, what do you see or want to happen for you in the next 10 years of your life. I am not quite, exactly sure what my answer was, but I know that the last 10 years have been some of the best ones in my life. In that 10 years, I married my best friend, moved, traveled & lived in places across the world that I never heard of or thought I'd ever go to, had two beautiful children, and lots of other tiny things that I just couldn't write down because there are so many. I really feel like I've accomplished a whole lot in those years. It seems like it will get only better from here. Life has dealt a lot of hard times but the good ones have outweighed the bad ones. It is those hard times that have made us stronger and better than we were before. I feel like I am the woman I am today because of them. With all of that being said, I'm so blessed that 2011 was the year it was. It has brought new things to my life that I thought never could have happened, and I'm looking forward to what 2012 has in store for us. If it's anything like these past years, it's going to be another awesome year. 

                            Wood Family Christmas Party

Melanie, Tiffany, Liz, Jill & Kim

                                          

That old saying!!

You learn something new everyday..... is an understatement. I've learned something new every single day that I've been here in this part of the world. Europe, I must say is a very interesting place to live. I've really enjoyed the time we've been here so far and I believe that the rest of these three years will be absolutely wonderful & we'll still be learning every single day. 
The new thing that Troy & I both learned was that the Finns don't celebrate Christmas quite exactly like we do, but I wasn't expecting them too, just thought I mean, assumed that everything went the same way when it came to a Christmas tree but I was wrong. This past weekend, they just started selling the Christmas trees out at the markets. The week of Christmas?! Really?? That seemed very strange to us but everyone in this entire world has there own traditions and way of celebrating every holiday that they have, so no judging here, just very confused. Troy & I took the time to research & really learn about the country that we are living in and their way of celebrating Christmas. I wanted to blog about this because I find it very interesting enough to share. Please read the information I found below, it's really good.

Finland at Christmas time:

Spruce trees are cut or bought from a market and taken to homes on or a few days before Christmas Eve and are decorated. Candles are lit on the Christmas tree, which is traditionally decorated using apples and other fruit, candies, paper flags, cotton and tinsel. Actual candles are no longer used, being replaced by incandescent lamps. A star symbolizing the Star of Bethlehem is placed at the top of the tree. Just before the Christmas festivities begin, people usually take a Christmas sauna. The tradition is very old; unlike on normal days, when one would go to the sauna in the evening, on Christmas Eve it is done before sunset. This tradition is based on a pre-20th century belief that the spirits of the dead return and have a sauna at the usual sauna hours.

Afterwards, they dress up in clean clothes for the Christmas dinner or joulupoyta, which is usually served between 5pm and 7pm, or traditionally with the appearance of the first star in the sky. The most traditional dish of the Finnish Christmas dinner is probably Christmas ham, roast suckling pig or a roasted fresh ham, but some may prefer alternatives like turkey. Many kinds of casseroles are also popular. Other traditional Christmas dishes include boiled codfish (soaked beforehand in a lye solution for a week to soften it) served snowy white and fluffy, pickled herring and vegetables. Prune jam pastries, plum or mixed fruit soup, rice porridge with cinnamon, sugar and cold milk, and sweets like chocolate are popular desserts. Christmas gifts are usually exchanged after Christmas Eve dinner. Children do not hang up stockings in Finland but Joulupukki (Finnish Christmas figure)(literally means Christmas Goat or Yule Goat) visits the household, maybe with a tonttu to help him distribute the presents. An old Scandinavian tradition that over time the figure became more or less merged with Santa Claus.

The things I learn. I've loved learning so far, so maybe all who read my blog can also learn with me. It's been lots of fun.

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Christmas Party/Parties in Helsinki

Christmas fast approaching and right around the corner, it just doesn't seem real. It's unbelievable how fast this year passed us by. Moving here to Finland in July, still doesn't seem like we've been here for 5 months but we have. With any and all holiday celebrating, it just seems like there is party after party and there seems like no end in sight. It's fine though, no complaint here because we definitely don't mind, it gives us the opportunity to be "adults" again. Embassy parties are usually fun anyway, the ones I've been to. The Christmas party this year was held at the Ambassador's residence and was focused on "Family" because the children were invited too. It was wonderful and they had it set up where the children had an arts and crafts table to make an ornament of their own choosing. Chloe made a Santa Claus ornament and it came out awesome. She did a very good job. However, Mommy couldn't help her so the Ambassador's wife did. Chloe did most of the work and she had a great time doing it. My duty for the party was to take the pictures of the children with Santa Claus. He came in and all the children were very excited. He sat down and the picture taking began. After the children would tell Santa what they wanted and I took their picture, he'd give them a bag full of candy. It was so sweet and the smiles on their faces were priceless. 
They all ran around the adults, playing, laughing and having such a great time. I'm sure that had a lot to do with the candy, and I'm sure a couple of them grabbed the soda off the table and had some, so I'm sure that contributed to their excitement. Just keeping up with Troy Jr was enough by itself. Thank God for Troy because I couldn't help, the first half of the party I was taking pictures and then making sure Santa was alright. I got him something to drink between children and families that wanted to take pictures with him. There was caroling, lots of cheer, and everyone was "Merry" throughout the beautiful home we were in. All went well and the party was a success. It was definitely a great time had by all. Very blessed to all the wonderful people that put on the party for us and thankful that we were able to share the joy of the season with them all. Such great people. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone!!

Chloe & Troy Jr donating to "Toys for Tots"

Chloe excited about Santa

Troy Jr not as excited as his sister

Ambassador's beautiful tree

                                              

Snow in Finland

No snow in Finland is what I should have titled this blog entry. However our first snow of the winter came and went pretty quickly. On the afternoon of the 5th it started coming down and did for about an hour or so but didn't really stick to the ground. The medium sized flurries that came down were so beautiful, but fell to the ground and melted. Chloe would watch and get excited with each one she saw & then would say, "Mommy, look it's gone." It was nice to see but we knew it wouldn't stay around for long.
The next day was Finnish Independence Day so Troy was off from the Embassy and so we were having a few people come by for a barbecue, so naturally instead of sleeping in a little, I woke up at 5am and started to watch t.v. while everyone else in the house was still asleep. I turned my coffee pot on and waited for it to brew my morning ritual. I was probably up for about an hour and then Troy woke up came downstairs to start the pit. He comes back in and goes straight to the door and tells me to come and look. What a pleasant surprise, there was white fluff on the ground. Apparently overnight while we were all snug in our warm beds, mother nature decided to play a trick on us. Made us think before we went to bed that there would be no snow in our future and we wake up to a beautiful, white fluffy yard. It was so beautiful and I couldn't wait for our sweet princess to wake up and see this beautiful site. Of course the day I want her to wake, she doesn't wake up until almost 10am. I was so happy that it had stayed cold enough because I was kind of scared that it would melt before she did wake. She was so excited when she looked out of that window. The smile on her face was priceless and of course the picture I took was dark. You can still see her expression and how happy she is. 

12/5/11 Before bedtime

12/5/11 Before bedtime

Very early morning 12/6/11

Our early morning surprise 12/6/11

My honey getting ready for the BBQ 12/6/11

12/6/11 Waiting for Chloe to see the early morning surprise

Chloe's 1st snow & reaction to it

12/6/11 She loves it & is so excited

12/6/11 No words can describe, my heart is smiling

The most snow we've had since winter started was on the day of the 6th but as I said before, it stayed for a couple of hours and then melted. It definitely wasn't enough for the children to go out and play in, but they stayed looking out the window what seem like was forever but I know was only a few minutes. It's just that they were so quiet, like they were at peace with the beauty of it all. Taking it all in and appreciating mother nature and all that white fluff that was given to us overnight. It was so awesome watching them and taking their pictures of course. Here we are 6 days later and still yet no more snow. I'm not sure what's going on but I've been telling everyone that it's our fault they don't have any yet. The reason is because we've been told at this time last year they had inches and inches of snow and this is very odd that they haven't seen much of any yet. What we got was apparently the biggest tease ever. Wouldn't you know, it takes us cajuns from Louisiana to mess that all up. I look at it this way, I'm just happy to have it slowly then all at once because I'd rather not be overwhelmed for my first winter here in Helsinki. Give it to me slowly and then I'll be alright. We got to experience a little colder weather with some snow while we were in Rovaniemi for our Thanksgiving vacation so that's a good thing if it comes to us slowly. I'll definitely have no problem with that. Other than that, we are so blessed and have enjoyed everything given to us so far. I will continue to blog later, thanks for reading.                              

Christmas Tree Farm 12/3/11

WOW....What an experience that was!! Picking out our very own Christmas tree and then having it be cut down with a chainsaw, at a real Tree Farm. It was just unbelievable. At one point I felt like I had to pinch myself, because I didn't think it was real. 
A group of us from the Embassy got together and the outing was arranged by our CLO (community liaison officer), which was a good thing because I don't think any of us would have ever found this location if it wouldn't have been for directions and or the best piece of technology to date, the GPS. 
We all enjoyed a very beautiful, gorgeous, and "sunny" day. Rows and rows of Christmas trees to choose from, going through them all was so overwhelming but so well worth it. Just to have that experience was the best. We told Chloe she had the task of picking out the tree this year, and decorating it too, well with a little help from Mommy & Daddy. Boy, and did she find some trees. I believe the first 10 minutes she had already found 3 of them. We knew it would be hard for her to understand that we needed to just get one and that it couldn't be gigantic, like her first one was. We knew she had found that perfect tree, it was just to look at all that she had picked and of course she had picked the best one when we saw her second one. 
We were also surrounded by great friends & we were with our awesome children, who could ask for anything better than that. It was the perfect day. Although everytime Chloe & Troy Jr would hear the chainsaw go off, they would freak out, we'd tell them that it's ok because that means somebody has picked out their perfect tree, just like we were about to do. Went over pretty good but when it was time for ours to be cut down, they really got very nervous but I made sure that they knew we were there and all would be ok. The guy with the chainsaw came over and went to work on getting our Christmas tree down. 

The tree is picked

Tree cutting

Timber!!

After all was said and done, we were on our way back to the front of the trees, waiting for them to bag it up and put it on the trailer that would join the others that everyone else had picked out. We had to wait until we were all finished because we rode over in a trailer pulled by a tractor from the Farm house to the actual tree farm. The owner had gave Troy & I a little history on it, and told us that the entire farm dates back to 1539 and it sits on 500 acres total but only 200 is cultivated. It is absolutely gorgeous and I'm so blessed & thankful for the opportunity that we all had.

Enjoying a little conversation while waiting & getting to experience such a great thing with all of our friends and the very sweet owners of the farm. Afterwards we all headed back to the front of their property near their house, and we gathered around an outside fire where they had sausage cooking over the nice fire and various other things for the children and adults to eat. Earlier when we first arrived at the farm, they had tea, coffee, juices, cookies, biscuits, and other delicious items on their menu for us to enjoy. It was great. We had a very nice time at our first visit to a Christmas Tree farm. The perfect ending to a perfect day was when we got home and were able to start decorating our 1st Tree farm tree.

Just put it up & with a little trimming........

Chloe's proud of her masterpiece

So sweet, Merry Christmas!!