Travelog for: Phog

Hello mommy!

I want to show you the view through the hostmommy's window. Just take a look at photos...

It has been snowing here the hole day!
And as you can see, there's already lots of snow outside.
Hostmommy promised, that tomorrow I can go out and play with snow! Great!!! 

Love,
Phog

Hello mommy!

Brrrrrrr... Today was really cold day: -21 degrees Celcius!!!

I went outside with other toys (Kurnau, little Sunny, Nyankororin, Bussi, Misslucy). My plan was go there to play with the snow, but I couldn't be there long time, only some minutes. It was freezing!

But mommy, the cold weather makes the nature looks so beautiful!
Well, you will underestand what I mean when you look the pictures.
Enjoy!

Love,
Phog

Hello mommy!

Today is the independence day of Finland.
It's a national public holiday held on 6th December to celebrate Finland's declaration of independence from Soviet Russia. Finland's independence started in 1917.

Mommy, now I'm going to show you how we celebrate this day. Look the pictures!

I went outside and hold the flag of Finland.







Others were there, too.





And then we decided to bake cookies. Yummy! 

We made cookies with the shape of Finland.





MMmmmmmmm.... they smell already so good!!! 



After cookies came out of the owen, it's time to put jam between two cookie...





...and then we decorated cookies with the colours of Finland: blue and white.



Yummy! Now the cookies are ready to eat!!! 



In the evening, we watched the TV show about the Presidential Independence Day Reception from the Presidential Palace. This event is Linnanjuhlat in Finnish. Famous or well-known Finns are there, dance, small talk, little snacks...etc.





HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, FINLAND!
HYVÄÄ ITSENÄISYYSPÄIVÄÄ, SUOMI!



Love,
Phog

Hello mommy!

It's 12th December today. Hih, it's so funny date: 12.12.12 

I started my day with advent calendar.

Hmmm... where is number 12? 



Oooo, there it is! I found it!



Today's picture looks like this:



Look, mommy! There's the funny date again in the local newspaper!



Look, there's the headline about 12.12.12 date!
It says that someone has 12th birthday in 12.12.12. That must be so fun!




Love,
Phog

Hi mommy!

I was walking outside today. And I found such a beautiful place!!!

Soooooo beautiful place! 

It's the river of Tourujoki, and the river goes through the Jyväskylä city.

Mommy, do you like this view, too? Isn't it magical?

Love,
Phog

Hey mommy!

Look, I saw Santa Claus and his elfs preparing the Christmas!!! 
Now I'm really looking forward to Christmas... 

Love,
Phog

Hello mommy!

We are going to visit hosmommy's parents to the Eastern Finland, and we are going to spend Christmas there. How fun!!!

Look the views outside! So snowy!

Love,
Phog

Hi mommy!

Today is very exiting day: Jouluaatto (Christmas Eve). 

We did some piparkakku (Christmas cookies).


And then we decorated the joulukuusi (Christmas tree).




Hihii, this Christmas tree is outside


We went to joulusauna (Christmas sauna).


And then we eat jouluruoka (Christmas food).
There's for example ham, chicken, fish, different kinds of casserole, Karelian pies, cheece etc. Yummy! 


And in the evening we went to joulukirkko (Christmas Church).






Then we eat joulupuuro (Christmas porridge).
It's rice porridge, and we eat it with socker, cinnamon and milk.
And very exiting thing is that there's one almond hidden in the porridge, and the person who got the almond to his plate, this person will have good luck the hole next year. (it's one kind of myth or magic thing... )


...and we eat also some Finnish Christmas desserts: joulutorttu (sweet tart made by puff paste and plum jam on it) and piparkakku (Christmas cookies).


And MOMMY!!!! Then I really met the joulupukki (Santa Claus)!!!! 




It was really awesome day!
I hope you have had a great Christmas, too!

Love,
Phog

Hi mommy!

I think this lantern is nice, and it has Christmas feelings in it.



I had little walking this evening. It's already quite dark.



I went to see the Orthodox Church of Ilomantsi. It has buildt in 1892.



Love,
Phog

Hello mommy!

Today I was walking outside again.
Now I want to show you some places of Ilomantsi.
Ilomantsi is nice small village with about 5000 inhabitants.

This building is the city hall of Ilomantsi.


This is the main street, and there's almost all shops and groceries.
I like those red street lambs.



It was -17 degrees Celcius today.



This is "the water tower" of Ilomantsi. I don't know, what is the current English word for it.



Mommy, look this view! Do you think it's beautiful?





Love,
Phog

Hello mommy!

Today I want to show you the City Hall of Jyväskylä.
It has buildt in 1899.

On the wall of the building, there's the coat of arms of Jyväskylä.

Love,
Phog

Hello mommy!

Today was my time to say goodbye to all my toy friends here.
I'm going to travel to my next host.
I'm going to miss my friends here, but maybe we see each other somewhere in the World someday...



Before crowling into my envelope, I ate a cupcake.
Now I won't be hungry while travelling.



Hmmm... it's good! 



I had nice time in Finland.

Love,
Phog

P.S: Watch out, England, I'm coming!!!

Hello!

Today I finished my journey, arriving in Portsmouth! I was so pleased when I could finally leave my envelope, and start making new friends. I'm staying with Cheney, Spikey Dragon, Porridge and Mimi and George.

This evening, I introduced myself to them, and heard their stories about their adventures. They have all been with my new host for quite a while now, so they were telling me about places she has taken them where I might be able to go as well!

We celebrated my arrival (as well as a few other things my host's family were celebrating) by ordering pizza, barbeque chicken wings, nachos, and cookie dough pudding with ice cream. It was all very yummy! We also had this bright orange drink called Irn Bru. I wasn't really sure what it is meant to taste like, and no one seemed to be able to tell me, but it is good!

I'm looking forward to finding my new adventures!

Hi!

I have only just got here, and already something exciting has happened! It has snowed! I wasn't very impressed at first, but then I learnt that in England it doesn't snow very much. Turns out, Portsmouth hasn't had this much snow in 2 years!

Although the schools and colleges were closed, my host had to go in for an exam, but fortunately there was time beforehand to go into the garden and play in the snow. We got pretty cold though, so we had to come back in and sit by the radiator to warm up!

I was hoping the snow would last for a long time, and we could have more fun, but my host explained that the weather was hovering around 0 degrees Centigrade, not getting much colder than -2, so it would be likely to melt and then freeze again as ice which is not so fun.

Hello!

My host was right, the snow did not really last very long Today it is already very icy, so we had to stay at home for most of the day. As my host had to do some music homework, we thought we'd help out by playing on her keyboard! It has lots of different buttons, so you can make some cool sounds! We had a lot of fun, although I don't think we made her work any faster...