christmas time in cali

It was soooo nice to be home in California for a few days! Especially Christmas time. I love Christmas time, the decorations, the food, the atmosphere and going to church where you can celebrate with everyone the love of Christ! My dad and I
(everyone else in the fam was working and at the airport) went to the Christmas Eve service at church and it was nice to see people, sing carols, and listen to the message. The pastors message was for us to remember that Christmas is not our birthday but Jesus' birthday. We dont always get what we want on Christmas because it is not our birthday, but we get the things that we need. On Jesus' birthday He wants us to celebrate Him and remember Him, but the thing that we need the most in this world is Jesus' salvation. That is Jesus' free gift to us.

While I was home we had a Christmas party at our house and it was so much fun to hang out with family and friends that I had not seen in a loong time. We had a great time with food, games, music, catching up with each other and smores!!




Alumni basketball game. All I need to say. We dominated. I wasnt expecting to play for a few reasons but I couldnt resist playing with my friends again, I even had to borrow a pair of guys shoes. Thanks Jason! It was fun to go back to the little gym at put on that old bcs jersey and play bball again. So many good memories in that little gym. The game was alot of fun, especially because one of my best friends, Janelle, who I played with in high school was there. We both realized, after she took a hard foul, which Janelle is famous for and plus it should have been called charging, that it has been a few years since high school and our bodys arent so easy to bounce back from something like that. The guys game was after ours and they put on a good show also. It is always nice to see old friends from high school and also to see so many still interested in the lives of BCS people
.
My mom, sister and I headed out to San Diego one of the days I was home for a girls day out there. We had lunch at our favorite sushi place, which was amazing. Then we went down to mission beach to hang out. We walked along the beach, got ice cream and played a few video games. It was such a fun day and I loved spedning it with my mom and sister, Kellie.





I loved my time being home. I loved spending time with my family and friends. I tried to cram in seeing as many friends as I could in the short time I was home, but didnt get to see everyone. But it was so awesome to see everyone that I did see and that made me not want to leave! I miss being in California!

end of 09

Once again I did a little shopping in the city of Tampere. I did find stuff for my family to take back so I was a happy camper. While my friend and I were walking around town we went to this little street market they were having. They were selling all sorts of stuff from shoes, ornamaments, kitchen stuff,choclates and jewelery. There was also some guy selling some roasted peanuts. In one of the pictures I am standing in front of Santas corner but sadly he was not there, we just missed him. :(



On December 19th we played in the Finnish Cup finals, unfortunately we lost. The team was a good team but we just couldnt get enough energy to finish. But hopefully we can redeem ourselves at the end of the season. On the way home we all were excited that we would have a few days off for Christmas break so we started the celebration in the back of the bus. All of us girls piled in the back of the bus and where we were playing card games, drinking some ciders and laughing alot! While we made a pit stop for a bathroom break/get more drinks since you are not allowed to buy alcohol of any kind after 9 pm, the bus driver thought it would be fun to scare all of us girls in the back and he started doing donuts and spin outs in the parking lot of the quickstop!! ok scary on a few different levels because a. we were in a big charter bus b. there is snow and ice on the ground c. this guy was crazy. He probably did this for about 5 minutes with all of us screaming/half laughing/holding on to our drinks and fearing we were going to tip over. After we made it home safely the team went to the sauna where our owners had provided a late dinner and drinks for us.
The next day I was leaving for home!! But all the girls insisted I come out with them, so I went home and finnished packing the last few things i needed and then headed out with the girls.We had a great night! I was gonna go out with the team and catch a bus at 4:20 to the airport because my flight was at 8 in the morning, but one of my friends offered to drive me and thankfully he did because he helped me out at the airport because it was soo crazy and busy there. At the airport in Helsinki I ran into one of the other Americans that plays in Finland and we were on the same flight to London. Unfortunately for her, her flight to NY was cancelled so she had to wait another day to get home. While I was waiting in the London airport I ran into one other American girl that was playing in FInland also and she was on the same flight as I was into Dallas, so we kept each other company during our layover and then we sat next to each other on the flight. I was thankful for these girls for making the flight home a little better! I finally made it to Cali and the first thing to see off the plane were my dad and mom! It was soooooo nice to come down the escalator and give them hugs, even tho they had no big welcome home signs. next time.

trip 2 North Pole..santa can you hear me?

road trip!


one of the teams we play is all the way in northern Finland, the Laplands. It took us 9 hours to drive there but it seemed to take forever to get there because we had so many stops along the way. We left about 11 and then drove for an hour, stopped and picked up some of the players that live in a different city, drove for a few more hours, stopped for a practice, drove for an hour and then had dinner, drover a few more hours and then stayed the night at a hotel. The next morning had breakfeast and then we were out th door. We stopped at one of the girls parents house for some coffee/tea and some goodies. Then we drove another hour and we were finally at the gym.


Now before we left for the trip I was told there was tons of reindeer up there so I was hoping to spot some while we were there. While we were driving one of the girls say look over there and there were about 5 or 6 reindeer in the woods. It was so awesome. Then a few minutes later there was one standing on the side of the road just chillin. The next ones we saw were standing in the middle of the road, apparently they cause alot of accidents. But I was sooooooooo happy to see some reindeer!! It also gets really cold up there, i think it was about -25c while we were there. There was also tons of snow up there, the drive up there was absolutely beautiful with snow on all the trees.

After the game the team and coaches stayed at this cabin. It was nice to all hang out together and have a good time! After our we had our breakfeast, we left about 9 and headed to the bus for the long ride home. Not before we played in the snow a little bit more! Here are some pics from the trip, sadly none of any reindeer, next time we go there im def telling the bus driver to pull over!