Happy birthday Kieran, off we go

Bleary eyed faces stirred and woke to the alarm call from the hotel and to greet Kieran who is 11 years old today. We had ordered breakfast to be delivered to the rooms. We got ourselves together and left the hotel and waited for the shuttle to take us to the airport. we arrived there and checked in and were greeted by Hal the husky and Rudi the reindeer. A very jolly lady with Christmas hats for the children was also there.

If this was what was going to happen with the whole holiday it will be wonderful but unfortunatley that was the end of the festivities.

We boarded the plane and there was no Christmas music, no happy stewards/stewardess's and just like any other flight. What a shame as the website for Cosmos promises the Lapland experience.

This didn't matter though as I was with my children and we were off to enjoy our break.

We landed at Kittila airport and the scenery was beutiful. We were met by Cosmos who directed us to a warehouse to get our ski suits and boots. I had already advised the company of this and didn't understand why we had to get measured up again.

Well...Siobhan was given a green ski suit that fitted her, Kieran got a smaller one, Rich was measured up for a man sized outfit and me, I got....a man sized one as well.

(Later when I put it on, it was HUGE! The crutch came down to my knees!)

We struggled to the coach with a white bin liner containing 4 pairs of ski boots and 4 ski suits. Rich and I just managed to carry it.

We then made our way to the hotel and this place is stunning.

As we entered Levi Fell we saw a large Christmas present and a Christmas tree which were monuments on a roundabout. This is a stunning looking place. It was covered in snow and children were out on toboggans enjoying the 3 foot of snow before they go back to the UK where 1/2 centimetre of snow causes disruption everywhere.

We got to the hotel and I asked about arrangements for Kieran's birthday as my travel agent, Jim, had asked Cosmos about it. (We had the flight details with the birthday and meal options mentioned on it).

Cosmos reps said they didn't know of anything and said maybe he could have happy birthday sang on the coach tomorrow. That was dissappointing but not to worry as I asked the hotel if they could make him a cake, which they did, The cake was wonderful although they had written "Brewer 11" on it instead of Kieran but that didn't matter as they were so helpful, more so that Cosmos reps.

The hotel room was something else. The children were pleased to see that there was a ladder leading up to the top floor, like an attic, and there were 3 beds up there, that was good as there would be no arguments as to who would sleep up there. I was left on my own at the bottom.

The TV in Finland is terrible. Daylight is around 3-4 hours a day and Kieran found this difficult to deal with. His behaviour changed dramatically. He was hard to deal with at times because of his autism. We tried to not let it spoil this trip.

We went out to eat at the restaraunt in the hotel and the food was a hunters paradise, all reindeer steaks and fish. As 3 of us are vegetarian, we found potatoes and salad, Kieran doesn't like either and I paid the hotel to make him a pizza which he loved.

We will be starting our excursions tomorrow, Kieran had a camera for his birthday and enjoyed taking pictures of everyone.