24.12. My first Christmas away from home

The first Christmas when I’m not staying with my family and not visiting my relatives, not having all the traditions from Christmas food to the presents being opened together around a real pine tree decorated with the same Christmas balls as every year. So - how was my Christmas then, lacking all of these?

First of all here’s my text "Missing the Christmas at home" was published on 24.12. in Salon seudun sanomat (a local newspaper of my home town where’s a page for young writers every Saturday).  You'll find the text opened up a bit in English when you scroll down, after the "article"!

I write about how I feel about the thought of not being at home at Christmas: sad and hoping I would have as special Christmas as possible here in Lapland . I also tell about the silence that falls down at Pallas and amazes me. Sometimes when I walk out the door and when it isn’t windy and no cars going (there are cars driving there very seldom), there’s just a silence and not a noise from anywhere, it’s so silent that it starts humming in your ears. It’s so beautiful! And in the end of my text I wish to everybody, whether they were alone, with friends or with family at Christmas, a very merry Christmas and especially to my family at home a very lovely Christmas!

In the text I'm also telling about this big package that I received on Monday the 19.12. from the post elf at the elf post office. It was HUGE and when I opened it and tore all of the papers and Christmas papers from it there was a suitcase in there!! I became so glad that my parents had sent me one because I have been in a need for a new one (have been borrowing one from my parents)!

 I was so happy about my new suitcase that it took a while before I understood I maybe should take a look inside the suitcase aswell. And when I then did open the suitcase I saw a tiny Christmas tree, decorations, candles, two gifts, loads of gingerbread cookies made by my mom... I sat there alone on the floor of our elf staff room, staring at this opened suitcase on the floor, forgot totally about my intention to take a photo serie of myself opening the present, and started crying so hard that I almost couldn't breathe. To see all these christmassy things and realize that my parents really want me to have a Christmas here too even though I'm not at home... To realize once more and very well this time that I truly reallly not am going to spend my Christmas at home... I felt so devastated! All these gingerbread cookies and stuff, my mom is unbelievable! I called her a sobby phone call and thanked her so much...

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Back to the Christmas Eve.

Some of us elves went to have a breakfast together at the hotel. That was our first time having a breakfast there so it kind of felt a bit special, while otherwise it didn’t really feel like Christmas Eve when I woke up in the morning. Somehow it felt like we have to do something special in order to get the Christmas feeling. I had a day off but after the breakfast I did want to go and be with the customers (I already had had one day off and it felt absurd as I was used to have one day off per week and I really missed the families already after being one day away from them). So I joined in one of the 30 minutes’ snow shoe walk and had a lovely time having snowball fights and being thrown in the snow like thousand times :D

Afterwards when my elf friends continued with the snow shoe walks after the first one I went inside (in the reception or as I would like to call it “lobby” ;)) and started playing the best game ever – THE FROG GAME! And how simple is that: you just have some frogs of different colors and you try to get them jump into a little yellow bucket. I can tell you guys: this game is severely addictive and can have very positive impact on your mood. I recommend! We played the game and people changed, some left and some came, and soon I noticed I’m playing alone with a granny of one of my favorite families. Or it was her who realized it first actually :D She went like “Oh Dreamer look at this, here we are two adults playing the frog game without any children, and yet having such a good time!” I agreed totally and said that this is quite a nice way of spending the Christmas Eve! :D

I had to drive my elf friend home (she’s kind of local and needed a ride home) and that turned out to be quite an adventure of the Christmas Eve! We went via a skiing centre Olos because we had to leave one car there. There are French tourists staying there at the hotel and when we were already starting from the yard I saw these tourists coming out for a smoke. I waved to them from the car (in my very own over excited way :D) and they waved to me to come out to them. I went and amazed them with my top French skills (read: skills like saying “I work in Pallas” and “Merry Christmas” :D) and gave them big elf hugs and they would've wanted me to come with them and party in the evening ;) Buuut we had to go and on our way back I saw one lonely Santa Claus (one of the Real One's helpers, I think) coming from some house and I just said to my elf friends "what is that Santa Claus doing there?!" until I realized some seconds later that YES, it IS the Christmas Eve!!! Hadn't still really quite understood it.

When I got back home my dad called me and that's when I remembered I still had some presents to open! My dad had sent me a thick letter and said that I should call him before I open it on Christmas Eve. So I started opening it while being on the phone with my father. Inside the envelope there was a DVD that my dad apparently had wrote some instructions on, starting with "1. Be prepared with a tissue box." :D 

I ended the phone call as my dad said I now should put the DVD in my laptop and start watching it. And you know what? I'm happy Nutcracker was there with me! Why? Because... The DVD started with a little part of The Snowman (this year I couldn't see it on tv since we haven't got one here), then with some little videos my dad had taken from the internet, wishing happy new year and stuff. But then there was suddenly my mom in a video clip baking some Christmas bakings and then my grandpa saying his greetings in one clip  and my brother and his girlfriend in another, and my sister and her boyfriend goofing around in one clip and a holiday film of my parents' holiday... I just laughed and cried all way through - couldn't have managed it without holding Nutcracker's hand tightly all the time! 

Before I got home I had just thought "Oh well, this is not going too bad, I have had quite a nice Christmas Eve with laughing and elfing around, haven't cried at all! Maybe I already cried so much in advance so now I don't have to!" Oh boy what I was wrong... And oh boy how much I missed my family! I called every one of them and thanked them. Special thank you goes to my father who had gathered all these video clips from all the important people... Had made such a big work!! And what a great idea that was... Can't believe it still that I got an amazing present like that! You just should've seen my face while watching all these vide clips, I'm sure it would've been crazy (Nutcracker was too busy keeping me in one piece and supporting me so she couldn't take photos)! 

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We went to Christmas sauna with Nutcracker and Twinkle-toes! We tried to get a little Christmas feeling with some floating candles my mother sent me in the suitcase. We didn't have any better place to put them on so I just put some water in a kettle and the candles into it :D

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After the sauna I opened the last presents and I got this craziest hat ever - a bunny hat from my brother and his girlfriend! I just loooove it ^^

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So I had a different but a great Christmas Eve. And I kind of had my family with me throughout the day, that was cool! 
I'm trying to update tomorrow if I have time, about how the life has been after the last tourist groups left on Monday. Is there really a life after the Elfiness? We'll see it the next time I post! 

Take care!

Lots of elf hugs,
Dreamer

23.12. Crazy life with Nutcracker + tomorrow 1st Christmas away from home :o

Helloo you all,

Sorry that it has taken ages for me to update my blog! Today I have had a day off and kind of every once in a while have wanted to go to the hotel and play with the kids... Yesterday I only had like 4 hours of work and after the day I just stayed hanging around at the hotel and played with the children and sat in the lobby having fun with our British representatives (guys who work for the company and take care of the customers) :D I stayed there until 9 in the evening :D Might sound crazy but I like my job so much and these are going to be the last days as an elf so I really want to enjoy every moment. And our work group is not going to be together for so much longer either so I want to hang around with these people when it's still possible!

Here are my lovely roommate Nutcracker and myself, before eating the most bestest (:D) cake ever - the princess cake! One evening we just got this big craving for some princess cake and since we were going to go to the grocery store the next day we decided we would buy some. And we did! And as you can see from the picture - we really enjoyed it! :D

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We have had such crazy moments here at our apartment that it can't be true - somehow here in the middle of nowhere even to wash some clothes can turn into the biggest number one adventure of the week!

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Sometimes the little elves might be so tired after long days in the snow that they just fall asleep whilst watching a movie (or whilst having a little chat or even whilst having some guests)! Look at that! So cute!

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Hihihihi I love you my crazy roommate <3

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 Here's the little text from the newspaper Salon seudun sanomat (the local newspaper of the city Salo where I come from) from Saturday 10th December. For you not able to read Finnish: I write about how excited I was about the first guests and how emotional it was to say goodbye to them, how excited I was to see all the kids see Santa and about my opinion about the profession elf - the best profession in the world. :)

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Tomorrow will be my very first Christmas ever away from home! :o A little scary! Fortunately there will be dear elf friends sharing the Christmas with me :) I just showed tonight Amélie to Nutcracker and Twinkle-toes :) ...didn't really have anything to do with anything but I just wanted to say that we watched it together :D Hohoo! In the morning we'll go for the first time  during our stay here to have a breakfast at the hotel and then we're going to do some snow shoe fun together, eat together and do a little Christmas sauna :) It'll be a different Christmas but I'm sure unforgettable too!

But I have to say my family has made their best for me to feel like Christmas too - but I'll tell more about it tomorrow/on Sunday :)

Have a lovely Christmas you guys!!

9.12. Big feelings and (mind-blowing mega) midnight sledding

Here are some photos of the wonderful meeting with Santa - of course we elves meet him regurarly but often in Christmas time with all preparing and stuff we don't see him that often. So it was nice to see him again :) (you can read more about how it was to see Santa and follow all the kids meeting him at my blog post before this)

I love you Santa! :) In this photo I have on me the festive outfit of a host elf :) (Photo taken by: Katri Alatalo)

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Yesterday evening (at about midnight) I was riding snow racers with my roommate Nutcracker and another elf Tinsel. It was crazy - we just glided through the beautiful whiteness along a car road through a forest - where usually there are cars going very seldom (as in maybe once an hour?) and in the night time never. I sat on my snow racer, let it glide in the silence in the moonlight through the snowy forest, had the totally wonderful nature around me. We had to walk every time about 10 minutes to get up again because it just went so far. Afterwards I got kind of a bit low mood and when I talked with my roommate when we got back home I realized it was somehow the power of nature that got me in a sad mood. I'm glad to have a roommate who's been here before and sometimes manages to explain to me something that I wouldn't have had thought at all. And helps me with all the elf stuff :) (we are both so called host elves :)) Thank you Nutcracker! <3

When we got home that night, Nutcracker and I listened to a great Finnish Christmas song Varpunen jouluaamuna and having just talked with my dear sister on the phone, the sad melody of the song suddenly made me remember that I'm not going to spend Christmas at home this year... There we went again - I started crying... I know, I'm quite sensitive and when you add to it the tiredness after the work day and the overwhelming beautiful moments while gliding on the snowy road - it was enough for the tears to come :D 

Talking about tears - at the airport on Wednesday (7.12.) when I had to say goodbye to the first guest group, it was HORRIBLE!! I didn't want to let them go and I just kept crying and some of the kids cried too and the parents tried cheering me up like "Happy thoughts Dreamer, happy thoughts!" but I couldn't, I just sobbed "I'm trying!"! :'D Some kept saying they'll never forget me and it just crossed my heart because I knew I most likely wouldn't see them ever again. One father made up a story that whenever his child would find some glitter on his pillow, he could be sure Dreamer has been visiting. That became a story I started to tell to the kids :) And after they had left I had to put myself together again because it took only about 15 minutes and a new group came all excited for their very first visit in Lapland! Crazy!

Tomorrow I'll see Santa again since the second group they'll have a gala dinner and get to meet Santa :) - AND then they leave on Sunday... It's unbelievable how the groups come, stay here for a while (and some of the kids/families really go deep into your heart during their short stay) and then go back and the little emotional elves like Dreamer can't take it... :P

"Santa are all of these really for me?!" (photo taken by Katri Alatalo)

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Good night my angels, sleep tight! :)


<3. Dreamer

6.12. Santa < 3

Have you ever seen a little child waiting for the Santa Claus? If you have, I'm quite sure you've experienced the great joy shining from his or her little face! Today I got to experience these super happy smiles and eyes bright as stars. And I loved every single second of it! I was helping Santa and the fotographer when every family of our about 150 British guests came and say hello to him and got presents from him. I'm pretty sure that Dreamer the Elf (that would be me :D) had as bright eyes and as shining face as the most eager ones of the children ;)

You know what? I love my job!!!

Since I don't have (yet) a photo of me and Santa to put here (I'll put it as soon as I get it :)), I'll give you as an Finnish Independence day gift a loooovely photo of my great great roommate and elf friend Nutcracker (and a famous filmer-to-be [she did a wonderful job filming my music video which you'll see later ;)]])!! Enjoy!!! :DD

 

Love ya Nutcracker! ;)

With warm thoughts and lots of hugs,
Dreamer

Ps. I also got to light up some fireworks for the guests to enjoy!! It was great!!! ^^

6.12. TODAY I'LL SEE THE SANTA CLAUS!!!

Today is the magical day when I - Dreamer the Elf - get to get the chance to see the Santa Claus in the evening and get to be there when every single family meets him individually! I'm looking forward to it so much! ^^ You should really see me hopping around here and waiting for it like crazy :'D

And you might want to stay tuned at my blog - today my crazy elf mate/roommate Nutcracker and me, we filmed a music video of Dreamer the Elf ;) I hope that I have time to put it together soon and post it here so that you can "enjoy" it :DD

Happy Independence day of Finland to all of you! :)

With love,
Dreamer <3


Ps. My second day (yesterday 5.12.) was a greeeat day, even though I still had many many new things to do and was unsure at many moments, I enjoyed it so much and it was super to get some positive comments from the clients themselves! :')

4.12. This tired little elf wants to get some sleep now!

My first real day as Dreamer the elf was today and I kind of promised you guys to tell a bit about my day :) So here it goes... In short I would say I'm as "kaputt" as after the first day working in Moominwoold :D

I got to be at the airport welcoming our guests and it was totally awesome, had such a great time with my elf friends there dancing and goofing around and meeting the clients. In the bus I for example got to sing my song
"I'm just a dreamer, I dream my life away. You might say I'm a dreamer but I'm not the only one. I have a dream, a song to sing" that I gathered from every dream-song I came up with ;) And sang Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer in Finnish which  was exotic for the Bitish guests :P

After that we went tobogganing (pulkkamäkeen) with the clients and had a great fun (and became exhausted :D)! Even though the day was much fun, I did have my unsure moments and couldn't answer to all the questions of the clients and didn't remember everything and had problems in different things - for example understanding the different English dialects of our clients was often quite hopeless. But slowly better, maybe tomorrow I'll know more already :) When my 9-hours work day ended and I began my 500 meters' way to the apartments of ours I was so tired I didn't know how I'd have the strenght to go home (it takes only less than 5 minutes to go :D). Fortunately my lovely elf friend Sparkle happened to start from the yard of the hotel with her car so she took me these 400 meters by her car and I was so happy that I didn't have to go that I just fell powerless into the car :D


At home I actually started crying because of my tiredness and unsureness and everything, but got a hug from my awesome roommate Nutcracker and she actually made some yummy food for me too!! So it was very nice :) And we went to the sauna too, and there I talked with my other wonderful elf friend Twinkle-toes and we had a great time. So after all now I'm veeeery tired but I'm happy that I have all my wonderful elf friends here with me! Couldn't cope the tiredness and everything without them :) And of course to see the children enjoying and laughing so much was a great reward for the tiring day too!

Now I just sincerely hope I could go and dream my tiredness away, but I still have to check which all things to say tomorrow in the bus when we go to the "tasters" with the clients (they got to feel how riding huskies, reindeer and snowmobiles is!) and visit the souvenir shop and supermarket in Muonio. So it's not quite yet that I'll lean my tiny elf head on my tiny elf pillow, but I'm sure when I do I'm going to shut down as quickly as all the children today after their flights and the first programs here.


Good night and take care! :)


<3. Dreamer

Tomorrow we'll rock!!

From today's newspaper "Salon seudun sanomat" (the local newspaper of the city Salo where I come from) :) Sorry - only in Finnish, though! I tell about how being an elf has been my dream and how I now get to fulfill it and I also tell about the journey to Lapland and so on :)

 

 Tomorrow we'll rock!!

Until now we have been preparing everything ready so that when the clients come there would be nothing more to do than just be our wolderful sElves x) Until now we have been decorating some rooms, fetching and carrying stuff, visiting all the places that we're going to visit with the clients... And of course learned a lot of how to be an elf, how to find your inner elf and stuff :)

But TOMORROW it really truly excitedly begins!!!! Tomorrow the first clients from the Great Britain come and we'll be there to meet them and take them to the hotel and and and!! I'm very glad that my first task is to be there at the airport meeting them because I want to be there from the beginning the clients come! :) I talked with my mom on the phone earlier today and told her how nervous I am because of tomorrow and of the clients and she said smiling: "Heini that's exactly why you went there - the clients and being an elf!" and I couldn't do anything else than agree :D How is it possible to wait for something so much and at the same time be so nervous and scared of it?? 

 

Here I am in my blue overall that I get to borrow during my stay here, and I'm so in love with it (so great to have a winter overall after so many years of not having one :))! From now on I'll wear my elf suit and obey the name Dreamer ^^

Now I'll go to sleep, hopefully tomorrow is going to be joyful and a great day - even though I'm so nervous :) I'm very very excited too! :) Wish me luck! Come back tomorrow evening and see - I try to write tomorrow evening how the day went! :) Hopefully I'll write that I'm very excited and love my job :D We'll see ^^


With love,
Dreamer

Making mind-blowing mega midnight magic!

 

....or maybe just some mindless monkeying? :P

I had fun xD Hopefully you'll have too :D

(Just before shooting this video I saw the very first time in my life THE POLAR LIGHTS!! And it was so crazy beautiful! Too bad that I haven’t got good enough a camera to be able to take photos of them but they were great! Green, big, changing their figure and place constantly. Something definitely worth experiencing! I recommend! :) )

28.11. The very first day of The elf education!

Forgot this picture from the first post - here I am on an early Sunday morning 27.11. ready to head to the railwaystation in the grey Turku, just to arrive 13 hours later in the totally white Lapland!

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28.11. The very first day of The elf education!

 

Started with the elf education today and there's so much new information to handle BUT on the other hand all my elf colleagues seem to be very nice and my bosses are so great too! And during the "lessons" I just had this stupid smile on my face almost all the time because you know what - I'm just so excited about all these things we're going to do with the clients next week! I can't wait to start "elfing around" even though at the same time I'm a bit scared if I remember all the details and everything. But we have time to learn! :) I feel I'm in a totally right place right now. I'm happy!

I wrote this in order to lighten up our neighbours' morning when they walk out of their door tomorrow! It tries to say "I love Pallas". It's also dedicated to my roommate-to-be who I bet is going to be great company for me! :) At least after talking 20 minutes with her on the phone it definitely feels like that :D

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PS. For you wondering where on earth I'm currently staying and what these Pallas and Pallastunturi are all about, check some information about Pallas!

27.11. The journey to the land of snow

 

DUDES this is me greeting you guys 27.11. at 00:30am, talking about my flu and being excited about my upcoming adventure - working as an elf in Lapland :D AND being conserned about how in the world I'm going to be able to fit into the train with my mega backbag!!

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Luckily I did fit into all of the trains (I left Turku at 7am, had to change two times and then take a bus for the rest of the journey!), there weren't SO many people there :) I could happily ever after dream away and sleep after some sleepless nights organizing all kinds of stuff for the journey!

Changing the train in Oulu there was a man laughing friendly at my cross-country skis at the station - "well look at your skis, you're optimistic aren't you? 


Haven't you happened to pay attention to any weather forecasts lately?" :D He was so friendly and helped me in Rovaniemi to get all my stuff from the train to the bus :) Jeiii! I sent a message from the bus to my boss that I am so so happy and glad that I'm coming there and that this really is a dream come true for me! ^^

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I arrived in Levi at about 8pm and my boss was there and hugged me! I felt so welcomed! :) First afterwards I realized like "wait a second, we never met before... And we hugged already!" It was great! :) They had been waiting to see a Moomin or a monkey so they were a bit disappointed when there was only a "normal person" coming out of the bus ;) AND there's SNOW, a lot of it (greetings to my jealous sister ;)) This night I'm going to spend in this luxurous hotel room with upstairs and downstairs and a sauna! (not going to have this much space after the first night though :D)

I'm so happy to be here! Tomorrow the elf education begins - can't wait!! :) Good night you all, take care!

<3. Heini