dont call me scrooge

As I sit here writing this entry I am listening to my Christmas playlist, just got done watching one of the movies on my Christmas list,drinking some Glogi and eating some cookies. What is Glogi you ask...well it is this Finnish Christmas drink that is so yuumy, it taste like Christmas in a glass. Really when you have your first sip of this drink you cant help but get in the Christmas spirit! You can either have it hot or cold, i prefer it cold, but always with some cookies! :) I am hoping to bring some home somehow so everyone can try some!

The other day I was walking by a lil store and it was selling a bunch of candles for real cheap so I decided to see what else the had, my lil Christmas corner was not doing Christmas in Finland any justice so I decided to browse the store to see what I could find to spruce up my apartment with. I ended up leaving the store with a bunch of candles, some garland, a mini Christmas tree and some ribbon. I ended up only spending maybe 10 euros for everything! Success! Now my Christmas corner has turned into a Christmas spread! :)


I am happy to say that I have most of my Christmas shopping done already, with the exception for my mom and lil sister. But the other day we had the afternoon off so I headed to the town of Tampere and met some friends there so we could shop and see if we could find anything there. Sadly I came back empty handed but now I have a few ideas what to get, I head home in about a week so that leaves me plenty of time to finnish my Finnish christmas shopping! :) The city of Tampere is easily one of my favorite cities here, it is one of the bigger towns, all the Christmas lights were up,people walking around and even some snow started falling! We finished the night with a good dinner and a few drinks, it was an end to a nice day off!

tis the season

I cant believe its already December!!! I have been here for 4 months now and it seems to have flown by, which im extremly grateful for! I found out that I get to come home for Christmas!!!! I am coming home December 20th and staying till the 29th, it a short trip but it will be worth it to spend Christmas time with my family and friends!
Here in Finland Im already getting into the Christmas spirit. I made myself a Christmas playlist and I am watching a Christmas movie a day, sometime more than one, until the day I leave for home. So far I have watched Its A Wonderful Life, which I had never seen before and yes i did shed some happy tears at the end of it and I also watched A Christmas Story. I have plenty of Christmas movies to keep me busy, alot i havent seen, but here are a few: a christmas carol, holiday inn, miracle at 34th street, scrooged, gremlins, twas the night before christmas, a charlie brown christmas, four christmasas, frosty the snowman, home alone, santa clause 1-3, the polar express and plenty of others! let me know if i need to add some to the list!! :)
i bought this countdown to christmas calendar thing at the store and you punch out the days until christmas and there is a piece of chocolate behind each square, but instead of a countdown till christmas, my countdown is until i leave for home on the 20th! my friend saw that i was making a christmas song playlist so he bought the Frank Sinatra christmas cd. how cute huh?! and then the red box was from my secret santa on the team that bought me some candles.

more vball

in the last few weeks we have had a lot of volleyball games, luckily we have won them all!!! but it was nice to have a week off to rest a little, we were playing saturday, wednesday, saturday and wednesday games. it is hard to stay focused, in good rythem and shape when you hardly have time to practice. but the most important game we played was the Finnish Cup semifinals. We won the game so we are playing in the finals on December 19th!!!

team bonding

a few weekends ago we had a free weekend..yay!! so we decided to spend the day as a team bonding day and it turned out to be a loooooong day and night but it was alot of fun!
First stop was a few games of bowling..i have to say i dont suck too much at bowling, i think it is my special technique of bowling.






after bowling we headed to the mens hockey game. we had good seats and tried cheering for the boys with our hpk volleyball cheer but it didnt help too much , they lost the game. but we had a fun time watching the game, eating free food, drikning cider and trying to see how cute the hockey guys were under their masks!



after the hockey game we went and crammed everyone in this little apartment for our little christmas party. they do not have thanksgiving here so they start the celebration of christmas in november already! so we had a secret santa exchange, wore our santa hats, played some games, ate some more food and went into the sauna.we had one girl that was helping us during practices and games acting as a team manager and she was leaving us but as a parting gift she bought some finnish alchol an wanted to have a goodbye shot with everyone. now this is not the besttasting stuff i have ever had but the finnsih sure do love it! we had a fun time laughing at peoples crazy gifts, the skills of the girls during the game and at each other!






after our party all 14 of us girls got ready to go out in that little apartment. we managed to set off an alarm and had a policeman come and stop by but i think once he saw all of us girls he just told us to have a fun night and we did!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy happy thanksgiving!!!

a few things that I am thankful for:

*for truly being a "dekiewiet"... i, like my dad and his dad, my grandpa, are happy enjoying the simple things in life. I am happy to say that I am like my dad in that way. My dads daily routine hardly ever changes but one thing that never gets old for him is to just sit outside in the backyard just watching the scenery and the sun go down. of course with a few beers in hand.

*for the part of me that is a fikse...the past year or so has been a difficult one for the fikse family but i remember someone telling my mom and a few of her of sisters that the fikse family was one of the nicest families they have ever met, even during the hard times. my mom is definitely one of the nicest people i know, even in the hardest of situations, i pray it has rubbed off on me

* for my amazing parents...growing up my parents were always there for us and supporting us. my mom said she doesnt know how she got lucky with 3 good girls but we are the lucky ones with parents that raised us the way they did.

*for sisters...they say that sisters are your best friends, my sisters and i have gotten alot closer over the years and now i can say that both my sisters are my best friends. they are the ones you can be yourself with and still love you.

* for friendships, old and new...those that have been there a lifetime, a few years or just recent friends, i have learned so much about myself and about others from each friendship. those close friends that have been there through everything and have loved you no matter what happens along the way.

*for experiences...i never imagined when i first started playing volleyball that it would take me to the places it has taken me. each experience has taught me more about myself then i could ever imagine, good and bad. for the opportunity to do something i love everyday and experience different cultures,people and Gods world while doing it.

*for HPK volleyball...this season has been a tough season for many players to find good teams, but i am so happy to be with a team that i have so much fun playing with and hanging out with outside the gym.

*for my health...although i complain about bad knees and bad back, i am definitely still able to do all that i want, play volleyball and much more.

*for change

*for taking chances and trying new things

*for strengthening my relationship with my Savior

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~JFK

free time

I have been scrapbooking alot lately in my free time, which i have alot of!! This is what my floor looks like when I start scrapbooking, one big mess!! But I like to have everything out so I can see what Im doing with all the pages! But I am so happy I brought all this stuff with my, I finally get to catch up on my scrapbooking!! and I got another package in the mail!! yay! this package had a lot of goodies in it! thank you thank you! I had to go pick this one up at customs and they made me open it and everything and apparently they thought i was a drug dealer because they wouldnt let me take my 2 bottles of ibuprofin with me. Then I had a bag of Skittles in there and they were questioning that too, they asked me if I was going to sell them..and I told them no way!! the whole bag is for me!!!

m.e.

Im just a bit excited about my hair being long! My hair does not grow fast at all so it has taken awhile to get this long. It hasnt been this long since high school! I usually do my hair maybe 3 times a month so it was nice to see how long it was when I actually spent time on my hair! :)

Here is Finland for each game they award points to the players that stand out that game. They give 3 points, 2 points and 1 point and with those points you get prizes! Here I am sporting the prizes. For one point I got a red beanie, 2 points i got that bright crosswalking guard vest and for 3 points i got the flashlight head thing, which I actually have used to read in bed at night! :)

Hameelinna

ok so it has begun. the freezing weather. the snow. walking carefully so you dont slip and fall from ice or slush. here are a few pics of the snowy town!

this is a view from my apartment window.

i took this as i was walking to practice...

i took this as i was walking home from practice...this is my apartment complex on the corner there.

Birthday Day!

Happy 26th Birthday to me! o man 26 years old. crazy. But it was a good birthday! Woke up and went to practice where my team sang happy birthday to me in Finnish. Then came home and baked a birthday cake for my team for after our night practice, which everyone devoured after practice! My cake says happy birthday in Finnish, hyvaa syntymapaivaa. In the bottom left corner you can see a lil piece missing, I had to try my cake first before I let the team eat it! But everyone loved it and it was delicious!

In the afternoon my coach brought over a washing machine for my apartment! yay! Now I can do my laundry at my place instead of walking to the gym to do my laundry. double yay!

Then I went to night practice where they sang to me again but this time in English, but the girls also had a present for me. They got me a candle and candle holder for my apartment, a magazine in english and some yummy Finnish candy.

After practice I went over to the place next to my apartment,Birger, where some friends of mine work and like to hang out. I also got a great present from them too. There is a store in Helsinki, Behnfords,that sells American foods so one of my friends bought me some oreos, mac and cheese,marshmellows,pop tarts and peanut butter! A lil taste of America here in Finland. It was an awesome gift!
I also had my birthday package from home and that had a bunch of goodies in it also! It was a great birthday considering Im away from home, but thank you for everyone who wished me a happy birthday! You made my day! :)

love getting mail!!

Yay!! So I got a birthday package in the mail today from home!! yay! i love getting packages in the mail when Im away from home!! But I am going to be patient and be a good girl and wait to open it on my birthday! It will kinda make it feel more like my birthday if I have presents to open!! Yay!!

HPK ~ first home game

Here in Finland there is the Finnish Cup and then the Championship. The Finnish Cup is a tournament that goes on during the beginning of the championship season, where we play the Cup games every few weeks. If you lose in the Finnish Cup you are done and do not play anymore games, so you play till you lose, just like in regular tournaments. The Championship is just like a regular volleyball season. We had our first regular season home game last night against the team that won the championship last year. Unfortunately we lost in 3 :( but we had a huge huge crowd. After the game someone told us that there was probably 1000 people at the game, which is alot for a volleyball game. But the crowd was awesome and really into the game! There was one section of guys, all ages, wearing bright orange shirts right behind our bench cheering for us and heckling the other team. It is fun to play when you have a crowd that is into the game, and they promised us they would be back for more games.

Our team name is HPK and our team colors are black and orange. I really like playing in our gym, its not to big but not to small. Here are a few pictures from the game last night. Here we are waiting for them to introduce us by name. The next picture is my friend translating everything for me during the opening ceremony of the new club team because this was our first home game with this new club.

the team getting together and cheering before we start the game, you can see the guys in the orange shirts right behind our bench, they were loud and i have no idea what they were saying!

here are a few during the game and of me hitting the ball.