Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

This might sound crazy, but here in Finland we look forward to the snow.
Why you might ask?

Well, believe it or not it might be cold when it snows but the snow makes everything look so white and bright. When it snows it reflects what little light we have here and everything is gloriously bright and wonderful.

This is a good thing when the sunrises at 9:15 am and sets at 3:15, and the daylight gets smaller and smaller until the end of December. YIKES!

A whole week can go by and you won't see the sun at all. Yeah, the sun comes up but it pretty much makes a dark grey sky look light grey. It is a little claustrophobic when it seems that the clouds are right on top of you all day long, or should I say all 6 hours of light grey colored skies. :-)


Park near home in summer and below is the same park a week ago! See that light grey colored sky.


So far we have only had about 4 or 5 snow days and the rest has been weather with temperatures in the mid 30's with rain. Finns say it is due to global warming.

I will tell you that walking to work in cold rain ain't FUN (that's right Greg, I said ain't and it is a word!)

So it snowed here last week and Greg's friends Tim and Tarja (the j is pronounced like a y) and their baby Olaf called and asked me to meet them at a little restaurant called "Fanny Goes to Hollywood", that is about 200 meters from my apartment. I am glad they called, because I got out of the house and enjoyed a beautiful snow day.

Picture of us all at Fanny's

As I walked to Fanny's I saw a bunch of children in the park, making snowmen or should I say snow-Muumis (Muumi are famous comic figure in Finland a.k.a. Moomi)

Here are some snow-Muumin



I noticed this on my way and had to take a picture. This must be someone's honor student because this is a great snowman.

When I got close to Fanny's I saw something that I have not been able to get use to ever since I moved here. Women leave their children in the baby buggies out in the cold!

They ALL claim that babies sleep well when it is cold. So many times as I am walking around town you will see baby prams parked outside while the mother is inside enjoying a nice cup of coffee or pulla. Well, as I approached I noticed little Olaf sleeping away in his pram, how funny!

To date no baby has been stolen or frozen.