Almost Christmas

Hello Readers,

The end of October is now here, that means we are so much closer to my favourite season. Christmas season will be here soon. I am so lucky to be able to start my season in Rovaniemi which is the home of Santa Claus. The official Christmas Season starts here on November 17, 2018. I am excited to attend this event at Santa Claus Village.

This is the Screenshot of the Christmas Countdown for
Hallmark Movies.
Photo Credit: http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/christmas/
new-movies-countdown-to-christmas-2018

According to Visit Rovaniemi's website the Event starts at 4pm, with the Grand Opening of The Christmas Season, at the central square of Santa Claus Village. The elves and local artists put on a festive concert that culminates in Santa Claus’ speech. The evening is rounded off with dancing to Christmassy disco tunes. The city is also offering Free Shuttle Bus Services from the city centre and I will definitely be taking advantage of that. I hope to be able to document this in a future blog post.

Christmas Movies are probably the biggest highlight for me. I usually look forward to ABC Spark/ABC Family's selection of movies - I could not find that list to include, I did find information that the channel switched names to Freeform - But there was only a list called Kickoff to Christmas which was for the month of November. I love the Hallmark Christmas Countdown because they come out with new films each year. It is another bonus that I love Romantic movies which is what I believe Hallmark specializes in. It is also a bonus that my dad likes these Hallmark movies and I watch them online in Finland while he watches in Canada and we compare our notes with each other about the movies.

I am also counting down the days until I get home for Christmas which as of Oct. 30/18 is 46 days (hehe). I am only a little excited, mainly because right now my sister is planning her Wedding next fall and I am not there to be in the middle of all the planning. I know she understands and I am still involved via Video Chat but it is not the same as being there helping her. When I am home, I hope to see many people but also get a lot of things checked off my sisters list for her wedding. I will be buying my Maid of Honour dress then as well. I can't wait to see all of my little munchkins. I miss them the most because they grow so much over a few months. I love Christmas at home, with all the festivities, the music and attending the movies. I want the house to be all ready and decorated by the time I get there on Dec. 15th. I already asked my mom when she plans to put the tree up and start the decorations but she isn't quite in the same spirits as me.

Bye for now...
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Poro Cup 2018 - Reindeer Cup 2018

Ticket to the Poro Cup...It cost 5euro to Enter - Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

Readers,

Alex and I at the Entrance
Photo Credit: Danielle Gadsby

On Sunday February 25th, I attended the Poro Cup in Rovaniemi. Poro is Finnish for Reindeer. I was going to attend this last year however, it is about 5km outside of the city and there is no city buses that go there. This year, there was a committee that planned to have buses from the city center for free for anyone who wanted to attend. I took this chance to attend. My friend and I met in the city and took the bus. Even though she is Finnish she has never been to this kind of race before. It is very unique to Lapland.  

The Reindeer race consists of 4 racers on ski's that are pulled behind the reindeer. They have to go around the track which is 197.5 meters in length. I have included a short video of the racers from the start and when they zoomed past me.

 

When the races were over we waited for the bus to take us back to the city center. This bus service really made it possible to travel to the race track and witness this type of races. To me it is similar to that of horse racing around a track and there were even places you could bet on the winning reindeer/rider.

This was a very unique experience because I have not experienced this before. I did however, attend a shorter type of race in the city center of Rovaniemi last year. It was a practice race for competitors that had to race from the river to the center of the downtown and only two racers at a time.

If you get the chance to come to Northern Finland (Lapland) in winter, I hope that you can try and attend one of the Poro Cup races they have in the 6 Different Cities (Nuoritta, Rovaniemi, Kuusamo, Salla, Kuninkuusajot Inari, and Äkäslompolo).

Thanks for Reading...