Moments that matter most

I wasn't in Texas to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family so my dad and uncle persevered through technical difficulties to finally get connected to the internet so I could be there via Skype.  This is what happiness looks like.  My radiant G'ma surrounded by her four children, their spouses and a granddaughter.  I spent the week 300 km north of the Arctic Circle.  But that experience pales in comparison to the joy and happiness I felt being able to see my family and visit with them.  No matter where we find ourselves in this world, the love of family reminds us that we matter, that we have a purpose in this life, and that at the end of the day (or week), those relationships are what matter most.

Welcome to the Arctic Circle.  Ivalo is a very small town, but it has an airport.  Snow!  Brr.  It snowed Sunday night here in JYV as well.  Inari is 40 km north of Ivalo.  Tim McGraw sings about small towns having a stop sign. By that standard, Inari doesn't even qualify as a small town.  No stop sign and definitely no stop light.

We each had our own rooms at the hotel where we stayed.  The hotel has been in the same family for several generations.  A sister and brother currently run it.  I support multi-generational family businesses.  :)

I love Finnish interior decor.  Very simple yet somehow so pleasing to the eye.  Our rooms had individual saunas.  What a luxury! 

Inari lake.  It's starting to freeze.  The patterns that form as the lake freezes are captivating.  This picture was taken around 1:45pm.

My furry friends.  Yes, they are real foxes.  I live on Fox Street in JYV so I feel an extra special connection to them.

Someone taller than me!!  :)  Reetta, one of my classmates, told the guy, "My friend is married, but she just wants a picture with someone from the north as she's from Texas."  Awesome.  I guess it made it less awkward??

The Northern Lights!!  You can barely see them.  They look bluish in this picture.  One of my colleagues and I were walking back to the hotel at 3:45pm from the Sámi Cultural Museum and we saw them!  My two goals in Inari were to see the Northern Lights and meet a reindeer.  In Finnish the Northern Lights are called "Fox fire".  Hey, maybe the founders of Mozilla are Finnish.  I only recently learned that the creators of Angry Birds are Finns.  Hmm...

REINDEER!  We didn't make it to a reindeer farm as the annual roundup just ended and the herders weren't in town.  But, we saw reindeer on the road.  They come to lick the salt on the roads.  Reindeer herding is heavily regulated here in Finland and every reindeer has an owner.  They mark the reindeer ears to keep track of which reindeer belongs to which family.

This couple served as our tour guides during the week.  We spent our last evening at their bed and breakfast, 40 km outside of Inari.  We went to sauna and then ran through the snow and jumped into the hot tub pictured here.  It was freezing and very windy that night.  And there we were as warm as could be in the hot tub enjoying the evening and looking up at the star blanketed sky!

Reetta took this picture while we were in Inari. 

This is the Sámi Cultural Museum and Nature Center.  There are only 700 people who live in Inari but they have 55,000 visitors who come to see the museum.  It's also ranked as the third best native culture museum in the world.  I could spend a week here.  This is perhaps the leading contender for best museum in my book.  I think Finland has the best museums.  The main exhibit, pictured here, has twelve ceiling-to-floor panes that depict each month of the year in Lapland.  So you can see what it looks like throughout the year. 

The sun's life cycle in Lapland.  For two months out of the year, the sun never sets. And for another two months, the sun never rises.  It's hard to imagine living in that kind of environment.  But our tour guide who moved to Inari 17 years ago said that if you make it through three winters in Inari, you'll never leave.  Surprisingly, I could imagine living there...as long as I had my light box for the winter months.  :)

Our hotel.  And...you'll notice my wool hat. Jennie (my sister-in-law) made it for me. It kept me very warm while up north. Thank you Jennie!

This is the small conference room where we worked. Lots of reading and writing happened here.

My light box! I bought it yesterday.  I should have invested in it two months ago. But, better late than never, eh? The best part was that I bought it on Sharma McDonald's birthday. Sharma and I were roommates when I first learned about the opportunity to study in Finland and we spent many a nights laughing about how I'll be staring into one of these suckers for 1/2 of my day everyday. :) Happy birthday Sharma!!