Christmas Day

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope your festivities are going well wherever you are in the world.

Our day started with the sun creeping slowly up above the horizon. After the excitement of viewing the aurora borealis last night, this morning has started slightly subdued. Breakfast was a quiet affair, watching the valley below from our mountainside perch above the pine clad steep slopes. The cold air is sinking fast leaving the smoke plume from the little power station below flattened. It streams sideways unable to lift vertically against the weight of descending cold air. Temperature inversion is causing a deep fog in the valley below. The visitor centre, souvenir shop and k- market have all but disappeared. Above this fog bank, the sky is a pinkish hue. 

We are getting ready to play our traditional family Christmas game. We all buy some silly pressies and wrap them. They are then put in the centre of the table. Taking turns we roll a dice. 1 means you can take a pressie from the centre. 2 means you can take someone else's pressie from them; 3 you have to give a pressie to someone from your pile. You get the point! It can get very competitive. A 6 means you can unwrap one of your pressies and it then remains yours. A time limit is imposed of thirty minutes. Some family members are devious, cunning strategists!!!!  They are all funny, silly little pressies but the game is fun, hilarious at times. 

Lifts open today at midday, we may just get some runs in before we go off husky dog sledge racing through the Finnish forests. Last night the reindeer sleigh ride was cut short. We would have died out there as temperatures plummeted to minus 27 Celsius. The blankets did little to protect us from the raw wind and the plod of reindeer was so slow it sort of prolonged a masochist self imposed agony. 

I lost my gopro last night. It slipped out of the sledge through a gap between the wooden stringers. When I discovered this half way round I was gutted; bereft. My gopro is my favourite all time gadget and I have had such fun using it. Fortunately, a Welshman following in the sleigh behind saw it and lunged successfully for it; reuniting me at the end of the trip. I was sooooo grateful. The fact that my saviour was a fellow Welshman from the same area I grew up in just made the icing on the cake! It was good to hear a welsh voice in the wild area of Finland. 

And so here we are Christmas Day 2014. Where has the time gone this year?

Wherever you are, enjoy your day. 

Happy Christmas and happy new year when it arrives.

Steve