Home Again for Christmas

And you're worried about a bit of ice on the windows?

After the complicated day that was yesterday, we managed to survive the extra night at Stansted and have finally made it back home to Somero. Hurray!

It was a long journey, but it wasn't all bad to be honest. Having left the car at the airport for the last ten days, I was fully prepared to have to dig it out from under the snow (I had even bought a spade for this purpose in advance). However, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared... except that I had quite brilliantly managed to leave the window open the whole time (great move Jody), which meant there was 15 cm of snow both on the car bonnet but also on the car seat itself. Excellent.

On the plus side though, despite the temperature being minus twelve, the car started first time.  As a result I now hate my Renault a little less than I did all the times it refused to start in the past. I might even try and be friends with it again.

In most things I am a real Finn at heart. However, having been brought up in the UK, I can't help the fact that Christmas preparations in our house usually begin early. Most years our tree is up by the first week in December. This year though, with all the complications and challebges we have faced, we have not really had a chance to get things sorted out for Christmas. Not helped by the fact that we couldn't get home yesterday as planned.  Determined not to be beaten though, the first step when arriving in Somero was to call in at the friendly guy on Turuntie who sells Christmas trees every year.  Somehow we managed to cram it into a car still full of luggage. I'm still not sure how this happened, but we made it home in one piece and we now have a Christmas tree in our front room. Better late than never.



 And I needn't have wasted any time worrying about the lack of decorations, because the best view was right in front of me, and much better than tinsel or Christmas lights.

When we left Darlington it was grey and dark and pouring with rain (ie a normal day in the UK).

We arrived in Somero this afternoon to be greeted by white roof tops and a beautiful sunset with the church steeple silhouetted in the background. Who needs tinsel when you've got that? To my mind, this is how Christmas is supposed to look. Some people only ever get to see views like this on postcards, but for those of us living here, it is right outside the front door. I feel so lucky to call Somero my home.

Happy Christmas to all of you. I hope you are having a good Christmas Eve. We're looking forward to the sauna this evening, and then my guess is that Santa's little helper will spend most of the night ahead wrapping presents, because of course being an English family, Father Christmas will (hopefully) visit us overnight... if any of the children have been good enough.  It really is great to be back home.