Christmas Eve, aka Christmas 2013
[Written 5 January 2014]
This Christmas Eve, we were invited to Finnur’s parents’ house for dinner, and opening presents.
First though we had to survive the day itself, which we did by letting the kids watch TV all day. 🙂 (43 images total)
Well, hello there Ms. Mostly Tidy Living Room!
The tree being defended by two chairs. Finnur later added a belt to fasten the chairs together, and the combo successfully thwarted Emma from attacking the tree non-stop. (She did crawl through the chairs once, but didn’t realize just what she’d done, and never did it again!)
Our Christmas gift to the entire household was ‘unlimited tv and computer time’ for the kids. Well, within reason that is (not during eating times, when we had guests, or when they lost their cool due to inactivity). It made for a much more peaceful holiday for all.
My main job of the day was to make a chocolate cake for Anna’s real 10th birthday the day after. This is a recipe from one of the Disney cook books we have.
We never put all the gifts under the tree, because we took the majority of them with us to Finnur’s parents. There were a LOT of presents!
We arrived around 17:30, at which point food was starting to be put out on the table. We brought with us the turkey gravy as well as a Waldorf salad.
Busy times in the kitchen!
Freaky Steinunn! (Steinunn, let me know if you want me to remove this pic!!)
The turkey looking gooood!
The kids got to open a couple of presents while we waited for dinner to be ready.
Presents are fun!
Table decoration.
The kids killing time by playing a quick game of Bohnanza.
Einar was the soup master, and his soup was amazing!
Bjarki’s patience wearing thin…
Lobster soup! Mmmmm!!!!
Yummy bread.
All of us except Finnur, who took the photo.
Finnur and his dad carving the turkey.
Emma, wearing half of a festive outfit, trying to get to the lights outside.
The kids in attendance. And yes, that’s a TinTin rocket!
The five of us! (Animation courtesy of Google plus.)
The Annas, ready for the big gift opening ceremony.
(… and there were a lot of gifts to be opened!!)
Einar, Steinunn, and Þórarinn.
Bjarki opening a present from us, and…
… giving his dad a big thank you huuuug!
A happy Anna.
The boys checking out Þórarinn’s cool duplo set.
Lots of candles!
The kids got to open up one of Bjarki’s presents.
It’s a marble-run thingy.
A happy bean-bag owner!
Anna helping Anna with the book-keeping.
Smiles all around!
We managed to keep the living room remarkably tidy, considering just how many presents got opened. (Emma had gone to bed before we started opening the presents.)
Time for dessert!
The customary Ris a la mande. Anna senior got the almond this time, and a jigsaw puzzle for her troubles.
Bjarki opening his biggest present, an uber-robot who shoots and moves via remote control!
Tags and ribbons galore!
The paper was poetically put into a paper bag.
Einar guarding their pile-of-stuff!
We made it back home shortly before 11 pm, at which point the kids went to sleep, and the adults relaxed downstairs, and opened the remainder of their presents.