As usual, the week between Christmas and the new year is full of fun feasts. On the Second day of Christmas, Arnar and Magnea invited the family over for delicious food and good company. Here are some pics. 
Mmmm... lovely lovely foooood!
More Family Feasting
12/26 2011 |
Christmas!
12/24 2011Begin info dump: Icelanders celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. The celebrations begin at 6pm with a fancy meal, followed by the all-important opening of presents. End info dump.
Christmas (Eve)/Yule/Solstice arrived in a flurry of snow. The trickiest part of the day is keeping the kids sane, because, duh, PRESENTS!! We somehow managed to convince them to go outside, just as a blizzard descended, and
The kids out in the backyard as snow is beginning to fall.
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An Early-Bird Christmas Vacation
12/09 2011Once I found out that I’d be all done with final exams on December 5th, I went right ahead and bought tickets for us to spend 10 days in the UK before Christmas with dad et al. It’s always nice to change scenery, and get a little extra daylight over the darkest bit of the year in Iceland. So to England we flew, and spent the days mostly just hanging out at my dad’s, oh and I did a bit of shopping too. :)
Friday 9 December 2011
The stewardesses of Icelandair have this lovely custom of coming out into the main waiting area and sing happy Yule-tide songs before heading to the planes (which all depart around the same time). They're really quite good!!
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Christmas Tree!
12/23 2011We spent Christmas 2010 in England, and therefore never bothered to buy a Christmas/Yule-tide/Solstice tree last year. This year we were planning to cut down a tree in our own back-yard, but when the time came it was already dark out, the tree wasn’t that pretty, and we were feeling lazy. End-result: Finnur drove to the nearest tree-depot and bough a tree.
It is customary in Iceland to put the Christmas tree up on the evening before Christmas Eve, so that’s what we did. As it happened, Bjarni and mom were delivering presents at the same time, so we got them to help out.
Anna and Bjarki walking aroud the decorated Christmas tree stand...
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Oh, Gravity…
02/04 2012… why you have to be so strong?!?!
It would appear that Gravity doesn't make any exceptions. Boohoo.
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Snow, Thaw, Snow, More Snow, Even More Snow, Snow, Yet More Snow, Guess What, Snow, etc…
01/26 2012So yeah. These past TWO months I’ve glimpsed the (surprisingly) green grass in our backyard for a total of three hours. Maybe four. The remainder of the time it’s been hiding under a blanket of snow of variable thickness. Yes, it’s Winter. For realz this time!
I’ve yet to go out on a photo-scouting mission with my proper camera, so a lot of these photos have been taken using my mobile phone camera. Ready for some white stuff?!
2 January 2012: Anna, her friend and Bjarki headed out with shovels to start digging into the big snow-mountain that the heavy snow-clearing machinery had kindly left opposite our house.
2 January 2012: They then invited a few friends to come over for a party later that day. One or two invited friends showed up, but so did a group of boys from the street who could smell 'fun' happening! There was juice and snacks, and then some unhappiness about the gate-crashers. Anna ended up digging until 9 pm that night though!
3 January 2012: On Day Two of Tunneling the diggers split into two groups: a girl and a boy group. The girls got the tiny hill on the left, while the boys kept digging into the big mound on the right. I think it's fair to say that they need to work on their inter-sex communication and cooperation skills!
9 January 2012: The pile of snow getting snowed over.
17 January 2012: After a few days of thawing, a lot of the snow had melted away, leaving this thick layer of ice everywhere. It's a lot of fun to bike on this stuff, as long as one has studded tires! (Sidenote: It's really hard to kick-off on a bike on slippery ice!) Also, we live at the bottom of a bowl so to speak, so we've had to be vigilant about keeping the drains open and operational!
18 January 2012: Oh look, it's snowed again!
18 January 2012: Our backyard being pretty.
19 January 2012: We've started leaving a piece of bread out on the patio for the birds. We ended up putting it under balcony so it wouldn't get instantly snowed over. It's become pretty popular with a few birds, as well as a small house-mouse which spent a good chunk of time gnawing at it that day.
23 January 2012: I've managed to bike to work a few times this January. For biking to be feasible the bike-paths need to be well paved, and the snow preferably frozen solid or just ice-ified. The studded tires work really nice where they get traction, but as soon as they hit a loose layer of snow on top of solid ice, life becomes very wobbly. Anyway, I took this picture as I was passing the Kópavogur duck-pond. After I'd taken the picture the geese began approaching me, hoping for food, but I sadly had none. That was a bit heartbreaking.
24 January 2012: The newest deluge of snow hit during the night of the 24th. You can see Finnur sweeping snow off of our car below. Note the tire-tracks on the road.
24th January 2012: Thankfully the snow was neither too deep nor too thick for us to break out of the parking lot that morning. Who needs a jeep?!
24 January 2012: The kids at Bjarki's daycare have been sledding for two months straight now. Yes, kids in Iceland go out and play in the snow, unlike California kids who learn early on that one stays indoors if there is any kind of precipitation coming or likely to come from the skies.
24 January 2012: Looking from Bjarki's daycare to Anna's school where recess was in full swing and the kids already crawling on the snow-mounds.
24 January 2012: Sooo much pretty snow on the trees.
24 January 2012: Once I arrived at work it had started snowing AGAIN!
24 January 2012: Pretty trees on the usually drab-looking parking lot.
24 January 2012: Hótel Saga off in the distance. Visibility rapidly diminishing, and therefore time to go inside.
24 January 2012: The view out of my office window. Not too shabby!
24 January 2012: Once we got back home, we cleared our driveway just in time before the heavy machinery arrived to clear the street itself.
24 January 2012: Much to our surprise, an oil-tanker arrived to fill up the tractor. We were impressed!
24 January 2012: We joke that we have rookie-home-owner-itis, i.e. that we're still such enthusiastic homeowners that we actually thoroughly clear our driveway!
25 January 2012 (TODAY!): Even more snow had fallen, and I found myself walking in Epic Winter Wonderland! The city area has rarely been prettier.
25 January 2012: Downtown this afternoon. That's the 'cathedral' and a TV crew shooting something or other.
25 January 2012: To the left of the cathedral is Hotel Borg (City Hotel).
25 January 2012: Third try is a charm? I could literally have spent two hours there just taking pictures and kicked myself for not having my proper camera. Tsk, tsk!
25 January 2012: Coast Guard ship, an EU Fishery Inspection ship, and a rescue ship by the Harpa building. You can see the dim snow cloud on the right that's not on the left. Yes, yet more snow was falling!
25 January 2012: Driving around these days is either a wild adventure (uncleared road) or like being in a giant luge (high snow walls on both sides due to clearing). Good times!!
As of writing this, the police department has posted warnings that there is even more snow coming and WIND, so driving tomorrow morning may be extra difficult. Time to get a jeep?
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Mental Space Opening Up
01/16 2012As of writing this, I’m one lecture and two homeworks away from being done teaching the ‘other course’ for a long while this semester. I’ve also finished gobbling up Merlin (mmmm… Meeeeerlin, also the internets are insane!) and as a result I have a wee bit of mental space opening up.
To celebrate I’m going to attempt posting pictures, starting from December of last year. I’ll post links on this top post since the other ones will be ‘date-correct’.
From 1 December 2011: Proper Snow
From 3 December 2011: Bjarki’s Daycare Christmas Ball
From 3 December 2011: A Thanksgiving-Feast with Ex-Californians
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Back to Work
01/04 2012I have a million and two images to post from the final gasps of December, but first I’m finishing my mental vacation (aka ‘escape from reality’) in Merlin-land. Yes, at this point in time, I feel it is my duty to stand by my vow to finish watching all hereto produced episodes with the utmost haste, to protect my pride and honor and fulfill my destiny. And yes, this is the first tv series binge I’ve gone on in a loooong time. :)
In other news I returned to my office today after a long absence. It does look like somebody cleaned the floor while I was away, but other than that, it appeared as I left it. (Oh, and yes, I will be melodramatic from now on.)
Seeing how it’s been freezing outside for weeks now, and the snow is solid and easy to bike on where the paths have been cleared, I took it upon myself to bike to work this morning, . It took a little under an hour, and I cursed two municipalities for not clearing various parts of one of the main bike routes, but it mostly went really well and was highly enjoyable.
Work was uneventful. My schedule for this spring semester is to lead second year students on a quest to understand transmission lines, while third year students will get mired in minutia about antennas. If I am to be thankful for anything, it is that my guide duties for one of these courses are to last for 4-5 weeks only (2 weeks at the start of the journey, 3-ish towards the end), which means that I might have eight glorious weeks where I will only teach one course – a fact made sweeter by the knowledge that I’ve taught it once before.
After a tea-time meeting with a good friend, I headed home in the dusk. The ride again went very well in most places due to smoothly cleared paths, but not all roads can be smooth, or the ride will be too boring. And thus it was that I hit a snow patch that my trusty bike could not handle and I was nearly cast off my steed.
As I recovered and mumbled a curse under my breath, my eyes were drawn to the visage of the beautiful sunset happening right beside me. The view struck me a unusually clear and sharp, and took my breath away. Sadly my phone does not have the facilities to do the view justice, but this should give you an idea:
The view I would have missed had the bike path been properly cleared. It is good to be reminded that stopping and looking around are good habits to have.
Seeing how it is now night-time, I bid you farewell for now. I shall see you later.
P.s. Congratulations Deirdre and Matt on your baby boy!!
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Happy New Year!! / Gleðilegt nýtt ár!! :)
01/01 2012Yeah, the title pretty much says it all!
Happy New Year!! / Gleðilegt nýtt ár!!
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While the kids are out…
12/27 2011… the adults go out to play!
Finnur at Grillmarkaðurinn in downtown Reykjavík.
Mmmm... we split this lovely dessert!
Yes, both kids got swept away on sleepovers earlier today. Anna headed to her classmate’s before lunch and will not be returning until tomorrow. So that Bjarki wouldn’t be bored to tears in the meantime, Finnur’s parents agreed to take him on for the same amount of time.
My plan for the day was to ‘attend an hour long meeting’ and then ‘shop for baking supplies and start baking for Anna’s second birthday celebration’ (which is tomorrow). Instead, the meeting went on for almost three hours (ok, first there was lunch, then a meeting that took an hour and a half), and then another issue popped up that needed immediate attention.
As a result, I’d barely pulled together a list of ingredients at 17:30, at which time I started pondering dinner. The usual take-away just didn’t seem like a fun idea, so I called Finnur and he booked us a table at a nice restaurant. While we were there, some friends called and asked if we wanted to join them for a movie, and we did! It must be said that Mission Impossible 4 was surprisingly enjoyable, and I now have the darn theme-song running on a loop in my head.
The downside to all this, is that instead of being a ‘good mom’ and a ‘good housewife’ I will now be going out tomorrow and buying a cake or two or three for tomorrow’s celebration. Baking be damned! 
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Anna Sólrún turns 8 years old/Christmas Day
12/25 2011Anna Sólrún is now EIGHT years old!! How time flies. As is customary, we spent the day with Finnur’s family. We arrived around 14:30, and began by eating a chocolate cake in Anna’s honor. She then got to open some presents (Icelanders open the Christmas presents on Christmas Eve) much to her enjoyment.
After the ‘birthday-part’ of the day was over, the adults sat down to play whist while the kids watched some tv. After we’d played 12 rounds, it was time for Christmas Dinner, after which the whist-trophy was awarded to the top scorer, and some playing cards were given to the lowest scorer.
All in all it was a lovely Christmas Day, and to make the day even more lovely we had snowfall pretty much the whole day, making the view extra Christmassy.
Here are some photos from the day.
The standard-issue chocolate cake, with too many colorful smarties to be readable. It should say "Anna 8"
The (half) happy family.
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Merry Christmas! Gleðileg jól! Happy Solstice! Gleðilega sólstöðuhátíð!
12/24 2011Merry Christmas! Gleðileg jól! Happy Solstice! Gleðilega sólstöðuhátíð! :) :)
All in all – HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
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