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Hey Mr Snowman, where are you going?
I'm going to the North Pole to visit my friend the Polar Bear.
Hurry up so you won't melt!*
*The newspapers tell there will be a white Christmas only in Lapland. Right now it's above zero in the whole country.
Yesterday was another busy but happy day. My sister sings in a choir and they had a concert last evening. It was held in the Church of St Lawrence in Vantaa (real close to Helsinki), and it was nice to get to see the church as well - it dates back to 15th century and is really beautiful. The concert was good and it was nice to meet my brother-in-law's parents briefly.
After the concert I whipped up Mr Snowman for my nephew. Last year, when he was still a baby, I thought it'd be nice to make him a Christmas ornament every year, so when he's old enough to really get excited about Christmas, he'd have a small collection of ornaments all his own. However, last year I was feeling pretty miserable and dead tired right before Christmas, so the ornament idea didn't lead anywhere. I'm not promising annual ornaments, but I also bought him a stuffed mushroom ornament by Maileg. Cheating, I know, but I happened to see some Maileg ornaments in a florists', and they're really cute.
I've been thinking of making a different kind of hot air balloon for my nephew's room one day, and that plus seeing this inspired me. I made the top hat with the instructions at The Small Object. I'm fairly pleased, though maybe the ball should be something else than polystyrene - it has so many dents already, I wonder what it'll look like later.
Mr Snowman has a present for the Polar Bear with him.
The photos are best I could do without daylight - didn't have time to take photos today, although it was nice and sunny. Maybe I'll get better photos of Mr Snowman after Christmas...
A certain someone I know really likes cars.
I'm feeling pretty crappy, got a cold coming - all those clementines didn't help, after all. Even my new comfort food no. 1, Mövenpick's creamy caramel yoghurt, didn't help. Watching The Queen on dvd helped a bit though (Helen Mirren is amazing!) - since one of our teachers had recommended the film, I told myself spending the evening in bed watching it was almost like studying.
As everyone who has read my (neglegted) crafty blog knows, I`ve got a nephew, little A. Yep, he`s the bald looking little fella in my user pic, though he`s not bald, he`s just got very fair hair. Sorry for everyone who thought it`s me and my kid in the pic - it didn`t occur to me until lately that people might think that! I didn`t mean to fool you.
And aren`t these photos just too cute not to be shown?
A and me met each other for the first time on a cold and sunny February afternoon. He was less than 24 hours old, being born the evening before. I don`t think I`ll ever forget how it was meeting him. He looked strange, solemn and old despite being so new. Soon after he was born it was like he`d always been here.
Look how stiff my arms are! I hadn`t held many babies before A.
I`ve had an opportunity of seeing A nearly every week of his life after our first encounter. I even worked as a part time nanny for him last winter. It`s been such a joy watching him grow from a tiny baby to a lively toddler. Plus we are really close, but being close to A`s mum, my sister, I couldn`t really think being any other way. When I was going through a rough patch last winter, A was somebody who always made me feel a little happier. And he still does, whenever I see him.
Moving into another town makes me worry a bit about my relationship with A. I believe I`ll continue being a special person in his life, and I know he will be in my thoughts as much as he is now (I think some of my friends are getting a bit tired of hearing about my extraordinarily smart and funny nephew), but it`s just not the same without my weekly visits. Still, I`m lucky to be moving only two hours away from Helsinki, and the way A keeps learning new words, he`ll be talking on the phone with me before I know it.
Yesterday was my sister`s birthday. I went for a visit in the evening and took some extra-chocolatey cake with me (didn`t bake it myself though - I baked a cake on Wednesday to take to work on my last day, and that felt like enough baking for me), so we celebrated with the cake and some G&Ts after nephew went to sleep. Despite the eight years and four days between sis and me we`re very close, and it was nice to have a chance for a proper sister-talk for a change. We see each other pretty often but having a company of a very lively one and a half year old can make having meaningful discussions rather difficult!
Today was warm and sunny - I`m really happy my vacation started with such a beautiful weather, it`s been rather grey and somewhat cool for the past few weeks. We decided to continue celebrating by going to Suomenlinna for a picnic. For non-Finns, it`s a fortress built on a group of islands just off Helsinki in the middle of the 18th century. In summer tons of people, tourists and locals (meaning people who live in Helsinki) go there everyday either to see the fortress or just for a nice day in the sun & some swimming. We didn`t swam though, the weather wasn`t that warm.
I envy the people who live on the isles, in old houses built when the fortress was still used. Almost no cars, a beautiful place to live (it`s on the UNESCO World Heritage List, by the way) and 20 minutes by ferry to the central Helsinki. Though it must not always be easy in winter, very windy and cold and dark. And in summer hoardes of people tramping under your window...
me and nephew, the photo`s taken by me so that explains the quality. i think i look a little malicious... but in the other photo nephew was upset (for not getting my camera)
I gave sis the card on top. No present yet; I ordered this for her but it hasn`t arrived yet. We won`t have to stop the celebrations yet: we already talked about going to drink strawberry margaritas on my birthday, and then there`s the brunch which will happen next Sunday, I think... Sounds good, doesn`t it?
nephew running away as fast as he can
So despite the terrible headache I had yesterday my vacation started pretty great. Tomorrow it`ll be another lovely summery day but I have to go to Tampere to have a look at an apartment. I really want it (even though I haven`t seen it yet) but I`m not the only one... We`ll see how it goes.
