Reasons HELSINKI is the CUTEST and........CHRISTMAS EVE!

It's official that this town is one of the cutest towns ever.  After Lakefield, Ontario, of course.  

It's cute because the dogs here wear little coats.  And booties.  And have pony tails.  And flashing lights on their collars.  (I will try to get pictures.)

It's cute because families are everywhere.  And even when all of the stores and shops are closed and there is nothing to do but walk the streets and admire the Christmas lights, they are there.  Families with the biggest smiles on their faces, bundled and not even bothered by the wind chill that is terrible times a billion.

It's cute because there is a park on - what seems like - every single block.  And it is clean and busy and beautiful.  And the parents are playing on the equipment too.  There's not a single mama or papa sitting on the benches available.

It's CUTE, you guys!

Now.....onto our Christmas Eve :)  With everything being closed on the 24th, we were able to relax and hang out and just enjoy quality time with our traveling crew.  Here are some pictures from the day: 

^^^  In the morning, we headed to the park by the water to run off and SWING OFF some energy.  I was reminded that I am old and "lose my stomach" on the swing and Nory reiterated her love for FISH (because she's basically one herself) as she looked for fish in the water with Uncle Steve.  Since the sun never gets very high at this time of year, it illuminates the land in the prettiest way.  We ran into a Finnish man who told us that we are here at the most BEAUTIFUL time of year :) 

^^^  We decided to go back to the same area for sunset a couple of hours later.  It was pretty cold and so we didn't hike as far as we liked, but we still got to see a lovely sunset.  Nory and Jet fell asleep on our walk and they ended up sleeping for (maybe more than?) two hours.  We really should have woken them up in hindsight, because they partied until 11:30 p.m.!!!!  Santa was exhausted when he stopped by our house!

^^^  In the evening, we enjoyed a delicious pork roast dinner prepared by the INCREDIBLE CHEF QUINN, followed by an intense evening of gingerbread-house making.  Emily and Steve deserve a serious shout-out for securing all materials necessary for both dinner and the house-building.  They battled through a no-English-anywhere grocery store to get everything on the shopping list.  GO TEAM!

^^^  The girls put on their "Elf Pajamas" before their late-night partying.  Auntie Gem started this tradition on Nory's first Christmas, where the "elves" drop off a letter AND a pair of new pajamas to help Santa locate us wherever we might be on Christmas Eve.  It's so sweet and we are lucky that Auntie Gem has such a great relationship with Santa's little helpers :)

OUR DAY THREE MISSION: TO FIND FISHIES!!!!!!!!!!!!

So to the aquarium we went - to find FISHIES and hide out from the WIND that made the day so darn chilly (#desertfamily).  I would say that we are THE WORST Canadian family around, but I think our low tolerance for cold weather is offset by our entire Christmas vacation being dictated by the World Junior Hockey Tournament.....for a second time...with children.

 
^^^  Here's Nory and I freezing at the tram stop.  With Nory being up since 5:30 that morning and also having a runny nose for what feels like FOREVER, things were starting to take a serious turn for the worst.  Thankfully, tram stops and convenience stores go hand-in-hand.  A lollipop was secured and the day was saved!  Juliet was just as happy as a clam to come along for the journey :)

 ^^^  The aquarium was small, but it was incredibly impressive for the girls.  Nory was so full of glee, that she was all over the place and returned to the same tanks multiple times.  She especially liked the little peep hole that she ventured into with Uncle Steve.  It was hard for Juliet to get out and crawl around because the floors were rough, but she ergoed along and seemed to enjoy it :)

 ^^^   With it being way too cold to continue, we sent Uncle Steve and Auntie Gem on a grocery store mission and we returned home to relax and warm-up.  Both girls napped on the walk back to the flat (WIN!), and then we were able to facetime Nana and Grampy before tackling dinner.

^^^  Em, Jettie and I played chef last night and we rocked out to the Biebs as we cooked.  In other food-related news, Jettie LOVES to eat and she LOVES to sit in a high chair.  It's weird and foreign and I am still in disbelief at how TRULY RELAXING mealtime is with her.  And then there's the NORNADO. 

^^^  Nory would GO CRAZY if she knew what Juliet was up to in these pictures.  But whenever Nory is otherwise occupied, we make sure Jettie gets to play with Nory's big girl toys.  ALSO, we solved the no-bathtub dilemma.  The trick was getting Juliet into the shower first and then Nory followed suit.  Nory couldn't stop laughing at the runaway SLIPPERY SOAP!

^^^  A quick cookie-decorating party before bedtime.  We have dreams of gingerbread houses too and hope to achieve them on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

HELSINKI DAY TWO! :)

With Santa Claus checked off the list, our goal for Day Two was to find dinosaur bones (#familytravel).  Nory has been interested in dinosaurs since the summer and so the phrase "dinosaur bones" got her moving at times when she would rather say NO.  Here are some pictures of the day's adventures:  

^^^  Our first stop was the Chapel of Silence in the downtown core.  Anyone can go in if they need to escape from the chaos of life and just take a minute to themselves.  Well, after some serious hesitation at the front entrance, the lady working there finally said, "BRING IN THE CHILDREN!  It's FINE!"  And so with fingers crossed we went inside and....GUESS WHAT?!  Nory didn't say a PEEP!!!  That being said, the minute we walked out of the chapel she exclaimed, "THAT WAS NOT DINOSAUR BONES!!!!"

^^^  The Museum of Natural History must have known we were coming because they put the dinosaur bones RIGHT SMACK by the entrance!  Nory was thrilled to be able to touch some of the bones (three cheers for interactive exhibits!) and she was just as thrilled to see bones of ALL SORTS.  I strongly dislike MOST museums, but Nory has PERHAPS changed my viewpoint on them...

^^^  The excitement continued once we stumbled upon the wooly mammoths!  I love Nory's excitement and all of her jumping up and down :)  Jettie was happy to clean the museum floors with her fleecy peach pants ;)

^^^  The museum appealed to Juliet too, with all of the ground exhibits :)  In the bottom left picture, Nory is trying to trap creatures using the round pool noodle.  Juliet survived all of the extreme swatting like a pro!  In the bottom right picture, both girls are crawling through a "snow tunnel".

^^^  A picture of the sunset on our walk home...at 3 p.m. :)  It's SO STRANGE having only 6 hours of daylight, but it means we can always catch both the sunrise and sunset :)

^^^  Nory playing peek-a-boo with Jet before bed.  In matching jammies, of course :)

WE MADE IT!!!!

After an early morning wake-up with two girls (and parents!) that didn't sleep the night prior....and after surviving the seat-less, sardine-like situation on our layover in Istanbul.....and after a flight that seemed as though every single child on board was screaming at some point.....WE FINALLY ARRIVED IN HELSINKI!  So, to those of you who've call us YA-HOO's for gallivanting the globe with two little ones.....I mean, you SOMETIMES have a point.

COFFEE and CHRISTMAS NAILS make airports much, much better :)

But then REALLY, REALLY wonderful things happen too.  And it makes all of the just-wants-out-of-your-lap-to-crawl-around, ALONG WITH THE there-are-no-pink-dresses-in-the-carry-on MELTDOWNS worth it, times a billion.  (I'm 30 now and still excel in the EXAGGERATION and OPTIMISM department.  At the same time, I'm 30 now and - almost 3 years into the motherhood game - I can't understand my reasoning behind NOT putting a pink dress in the carry-on.  SO SILLY.)

Eeeeee!!!!!!!!  I have the feeling of Christmas ALL YEAR LONG :)

Back to the good stuff.

Our Helsinki apartment is darling and MUCH BIGGER than it appears in the pictures.  (You can check it out HERE.)  This place will be our home for the whole two weeks, which means we've got to unpack and settle in and NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT SUITCASES for days.  There's lots of room for the girls to play (sanity saver!) and we are walking distance to parks, supermarkets and the downtown core.  It's PERFECT.  A big thank you to Gem and Phil for finding this place!!!

The days here are short, with only about 6 hours of daylight.  The sun doesn't rise until 9ish and yesterday morning, Nory kept telling us that it was too early to get out of bed.  Alas, she was convinced (#gottafindsanta) and we all got ready for our first day of exploring.

^^^ Side Note:  A serious shout-out to all moms who regularly get their children dressed for cold weather.  I mean....the hats, the mitts, the boots, the layers......OY.  Nory wasn't so sure about bundling up in the beginning, but we did make some progress throughout the day!

We had a really exciting (and LUCKY!) first day.  Here are some more tales from Day One:

^^^ The main goal of the day was to find Santa.  But first, STARBUCKS!  Em has become a Google Maps Guru and she led the way, through beautifully-decorated Christmas areas, to some much-needed warm beverages. 

^^^ After hot drinks, we made our way to one of the main Christmas markets in the city, where we did some stair-climbing (for scenic - not fitness - purposes) and some more hot drink drinking. 

^^^  And at this very Christmas market, we FOUND HIM!  SANTA!!!!!!  Nory was beyond thrilled and didn't want to leave him.  Thank goodness there wasn't a line and she was able to get an extra few minutes with St. Nick.  He even gave her his business card - HA!  Jettie had just woken up from a nap and was not quite sure why she was sitting on a random man's lap.  That ended in a snap. 

^^^  After our Santa sighting, we had a TEAM CANADA sighting at the Hard Rock Cafe!  Steve saw them walk into the restaurant, which obviously made our lunch decision EASY PEEZY.  Once inside, I was voted as tribute to walk up to their table and ask for confirmation of their WORLD JUNIOR status AND ask if we could be in a picture with them.  I was SO NERVOUS!  But ultimately, I think they were more surprised and nervous than I was :)  They were such gentlemen :)

 ^^^  Since Nory slept through our Hard Rock experience, we felt compelled to visit the toy store immediately after ;)  She had a great time making music on this "running piano".  When we got home, we let her sugar-it-up with a "Christmas lollipop" that we got from the Christmas market. 

 ^^^  Jettie was a trooper about her winter gear, but she sure enjoyed the freedom of being back at the apartment to cruise and crawl.  She's been sporting some TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS onesies to model her continued support of ALL-THINGS-CANADIAN.  

^^^ Before bed, Uncle Steve and Nory had a hay-day playing with Brio trains.  It was a great way to end an AMAZING first day :)

So that was what we were up to on Day One.  It wasn't all rainbows and unicorns, of course.  There was the meltdown about getting mud on the shoes and not having an extra pair in the back pack.  There was the meltdown about wanting/not-wanting to climb the stairs to see the view of the Christmas market.  There was the meltdown about the thumb not being in the proper part of the mitten.  But, HEY, we survived and are all stronger for it ;)

HOORAY FOR TEAMWORK!  AND AUNTIES!  AND UNCLES!  AND.....it's CHRISTMAS, y'all! XOXO