Pictures around Christmas 2010

Luckily they have a football field in Playa Hermosa! Tuomas loves football, but he ended up with a nose bleed the first time we were there. Playing too hard!
Our friends above our entrance door. Lovely bats.

The skeletons of the construction business. And these are not the only unfinished houses in the neighborhood.
Tuomas at Borinquen Resort enjoying a hot water pool.
Risto doing the mudtreatment the proper way, i.e. letting the mud dry before washing it away.
Happy boys with DH's Christmas present!

Christmas pictures

Christmas was understandably very different from what we are used to. But it wasn't too bad. The only decoration we had was a paper star I made.We had red snapper for dinner and Piña Coladas, of course. Before sun set we hurried to the roof terrace (the sun goes down pretty quickly!) and had our picture taken. The Pacific Ocean is right behind those trees, less than 1 km away. Later on in the dry season the leaves are gone and we can honestly say that we have an ocean view!

View to the neighbor's yard.

Playa Hermosa at sunset. During the day the sand gets so hot that it burns your feet.

At home!!!

We have been at home, Playa Hermosa, for a week now!

The flight over was a long one, but went surprisingly well. No major set backs, except for Jaakko spraining his thumb at Frankfurt airport. It was swollen for a couple of days, but hasn't really slowed him down from fighting with his brothers. He's a real terrier, fighting bigger ones and not giving up. All three have been arguing a lot, which is understandable (but extremely annoying). It has been a huge change for the whole family.

The house is nice, the pool excellent. Jaakko can now swim unaided. We've had some reparations done in the house, but nothing major.

Pura Vida!

Six days

The boys' bunk bed was sold today. Even though Jaakko helped carrying the pieces out of the house he was surprised that the bed was gone from his room. Poor boy, he has an ear infection. He described the pain as "I can feel my heartbeat in my ear". Painkillers before going to the doctor, antibiotics, still in pain, more painkillers, throwing up.... Finally fell asleep in our bed.
Oops, almost midnight, we're still moving stuff around in the house, vacuum cleaning spiders and dust.
Six days and about this time we're hopefully landing in Houston, Texas.
Almost exactly a year ago I came home late at night from a week long business trip in Switzerland. I was "attacked" by my husband immediately after walking into the house "I have this great idea for our next trip!!!!". And I wasn't excited. I wanted to stay at home, use the money for re-decorating the house, what about Risto's school, and I'd need to take extra vacation and I've travelled so much, I'd rather stay at home and besides I'm afraid of flying over the Atlantic. He kept whining about going to Costa Rica and actually ended up threatening to go with just Risto and I could stay at home and use my share of the money for re-decorating! Finally I gave in (and DH bought the tickets immediately!). And here we are now, moving to Costa Rica!

Saying goodbye

We have 9 full days left. That's not much. We've been packing, selling stuff, organizing, making phone calls. Saying goodbye.
We've caught up with friends we haven't seen for years, made new friends in the last minute, we have really felt the love and support of our friends! Thank you so much!
We've said goodbye to the teachers at day-care. Cried. Tuomas was heartbroken the last time we picked him up from there. But the day after we had invited all the day-care teachers who had taught our boys over for a small celebration party. We had a wonderful evening.
Risto has 4 days of school and then it's over. He has his birthday party with a friend next Saturday, saying goodbye that way makes it probably easier.
The boys are anxious, arguing a lot. We are tired. I feel a panic bubbling underneath, but I try to suppress that feeling. Luckily I'm so busy that I don't think about the flight; I'm scared of flying over the Atlantic.
I'm surprised that I have absolutely no feelings towards this house. Maybe I'm suppressing that feeling too.
It's 10:30 PM, we've promised to work for one more hour and then call it a day.