City of Lights, part un

We didn’t make any travel plans before we left home, other than we wanted to get to Finland to meet Santa Claus, and to see the uncles. From there we winged our trip and went where our flights could take us, booking rooms along the way. As far as standby goes, we got about as […]

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Cologne: Christmas City

The thing about Christmas markets is that they just make you thirsty… for more Christmas markets. We wanted to take a little European road trip so we flew from Tallinn to Frankfurt and rented a car to take us to the best markets in the world- Germany’s Christkindlmarkts. Greg did his research and chose Cologne […]

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Tallinn

Take-off to touchdown, Tallinn is a 27 minute flight from Helsinski. I had read about Tallinn’s lovely Christmas market in its Old Town, and since we happened to be in the neighborhood, and since Finnair and consequently Fly.be partner with Greg’s airline, we made the short trip across the pond. The only thing we had […]

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Hitchin’ again, hitchin’ again

What goes north must eventually go back south, most unfortunately. I fell head over heels for our little log cabin and it pained me very much to hand the keys over the morning we checked out of it. We could not have asked for a better vacation than a cabin in Finland- it’s just right […]

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Finnish Lapland

I just get so tired. Lord knows I love a good nap, but I just can’t seem to wake up here. Gregory, who rarely naps at home, has been joining me for three, four, six hour naps here in Finland. Our first night in Lapland we laid down at 6:00p, got up at 9:00p, stayed […]

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Hitchin’ a ride, hitchin’ a ride

Kristina and Mike told us about a great area in the far, snowy (but not the farthest, snowiest) north of Finland called Saariselka and the hotel where they used to work outside of Finland’s second largest national park- Urho Kekkonen National Park, or Urho Kekkonen kansallispuisto if you will. A snowy paradise with cabins and […]

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Snowman World

When I first messaged my friend Kristina (the only Finn I’ve ever met) for recommendations on traveling to Finland to meet Santa Claus, I was pleased as punch to hear she not only knew all about Santa, but that she was actually working at Snowman World in Santa Claus Village. I nearly passed out from […]

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Santa Claus Village

Last Friday I got to experience one of my husband’s life dreams come true. I got to witness Gregory meeting Santa Claus for the first time. A day he described as “the best day ever, after August 10, 2013” (our wedding day). Don’t believe all those stories, movies, songs, etc. Santa Claus does not live at […]

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Rovaniemi

What better way to fend off jet lag than to sleep eleven hours, then walk around all day? A cup of Finnish coffee and some McDonald’s, maybe. We set out to explore our new sister city on a gorgeous, sunny (albeit short-lived) day. This is the furthest north I’ve ever been so I’m not used […]

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A Finnish Christmas

For those of you that don’t know, I’m married to a five year old Buddy the Elf. Greg is always fun, he’s always happy, and he LOVES Christmas. Carols around our house start in October, though he was a little late this year and didn’t subject me until harvest was over in early November. But […]

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