Rovaniemi: Santa's Village

Rusty and I got up early the morning after our husky ride to go meet Santa! I made some of my family in Utah stay up so they could watch us online- there is a live feed (if you're ever bored go to santaclauslive.com to watch a bunch of tourists meet Santa haha). We made sure to be there when they opened at 10am, since that was already 2am in Utah! We were the only ones there, so we got to meet with Santa for 10 minutes. We were told by an elf that that was a record because visits usually last 3-4 minutes. During our time with him, we introduced ourselves, talked about Rudolph and Utah, Rusty sang him Jingle Bells, we chatted about volleyball, and Facetimed my sisters Kirsten and Kendall so they could talk to him as well...we were pretty excited no one was in line to meet him so we could just keep chatting...but maybe Santa wasn't as excited?... ;) 

Next on our Santa's Village to-do list: The reindeer! I get so excited just seeing them, and they take me right back to my childhood days watching Prancer...Anyways, Rusty and I recently bought a reindeer pelt. After hearing "Awe that's so sad" from each one of my family members, I began to feel guilty/sad for the reindeer. But, my guilt was relieved after talking to a lady who worked with the reindeer. She informed me that they're usually only killed for food (reindeer meat is pretty popular here) and then they take the fur. Phew!

Rusty and I got stamps in our passports, so we can officially say we've been to the Arctic Circle! The lady who stamped them chose the page that has a bear fishing in the river with the sun in the background because she said it could be Finland at 1am since the sun doesn't go down in the summer.

We also paid a visit to the huskies, including four husky puppies (insert heart eye emoji), shared a "Santa Burger", saw the world's largest snowmen, and visited Santa's post office, which is where kids' letters to Santa actually get mailed. They have bins full of letters, and a huge case to organize them by country- there were letters from everywhere. Jamaica, Honduras, Turkmenistan, even places I hadn't even heard of!

Thanks to Rovaniemi- we made a major dent in our winter bucket list. Finland is still managing to pleasantly surprise me. I'm becoming more of a winter person each day and I am so grateful for the once in a lifetime experiences I have had out here so far.

Our trip made it feel like Christmas all over again!

 

 

I got so nervous meeting Santa, I forgot where we lived haha...

 

 

 

 

 

You can't really see it, but there is a sign pointing straight down that says
"Center of the Earth 6370km". I really felt like we were at the North Pole!

 

Rusty refused to take a picture with this elf...but I had to because it was so Finnish

14 Dates of Valentine's

I surprised Rusty with "14 Dates of Valentine's". Starting February 1st, we did small dates everyday! Well, not quite every day...I hate to admit it, but we didn't get through all 14...Rusty went out of town one weekend and my planning went downhill from there lol, but here are the dates we did/future dates we will do...

1st: Santa's Village in Rovaniemi

2nd: Crepe Night

3rd: "5 Love Language" Quiz

4th: Ice Skating

5th: Head's Up Game (If you haven't downloaded this app- do it now!)

6th: Magazine Reading at the Library

7th: Bike Ride

8th: Movie Night

9th: Pedicures

10th: Sledding

11th: Build a Snowman

12th: High School Parade- wasn't planned, but I counted it as a date ;)

13th: Bowling

14th: Rusty planned this one...Pannukakkutalo (Pankcake House), ice skating, lunch at Kauppuri- our favorite burger place, dinner at Veera and Juho's! He also had a volleyball game that day, but luckily it was at 3:30 in the afternoon, so he had the night off!

P/S- Here's a random fun fact...in Finland, Valentine's Day is a day to celebrate friends.