New Year’s Eve – 2015 Edition
[Some photos from New Year’s Eve 31 December 2015, pre-and post-midnight. Put online on 24 January 2016. The snow seems to be retreating a bit, I can see grass.]
We spent this past New Year’s Eve with Finnur’s family, as has been our habit lately. This year, Finnur’s uncle and his wife hosted a lovely party, a hop and a skip away from us, with tons of fantastic food.
Shortly before 9 pm, I dragged a few people (mostly kids) with me on a short walk to check out two ‘proper’ fireworks-displays. They’re hosted by the ICE-SAR units in Kópavogur and Garðabær, respectively, and always feature the big-bada-boom fireworks. It so happens that if you stand on the ridge that separates Kópavogur and Garðabær, you can watch the two shows.
Back at the party, we chatted more, ate more, and watched the annual comedy hour, which was somewhat meh this year. Then it was 23:30 and we went outside to shoot up some fireworks and witness the neighbors go bonkers with theirs.
All pretty standard stuff, but it was fun anyway! ALL THE PHOTOS ARE HERE, if anybody’s interested. Here are a few as well: (28 images total)
The five of us! In one photo!
Ice Skating With Adda and Kids
[Photos from 29 December 2015, posted 25 January 2016. Grass still visible under hail from this morning. Blue-ish skies.]
Adda called during the holiday and asked if we were up for some ice skating. I said yes, and we met up, and had a good time! (9 images total)
Daycare was open for three days between Christmas and New Year’s, and we took Emma there every day, because we’re lazy. That said, she generally arrived very late, around 11 am, after spending the morning frolicking in front of the computer, watching her favorite shows. This photo was taken at 11:11 as I was returning from dropping Emma off at daycare.
Archery
[Photos from Sunday 27 December 2016, posted online 25 January 2016. Or not. The kids are about to come home.]
Every few weeks, Bjarki will ask to go to the archery place, and usually he gets a “no, not today… ask again later” answer.
Now, since this was a holiday, we decided to stop postponing, and just do it, so to the archery three went, while Finnur fooled Emma into taking a nap. (Only he can get her to fall asleep indoors during the day. My only chance at putting her down is to drive her around in the car for a few minutes, but then we’re stuck in the car for an hour! Thankfully, the electric car is happy to provide non-smoggy heat when that happens.) (9 images total)
I won’t lie. I was incredibly proud of myself for getting us Out. Of. The. House. for once!
The Sofa Project
[Ongoing in December 2015, posted on 25 January 2016. After dark!]
This post chronicles a little project I began in December to fasten two sofa pieces together, that kept falling apart. (10 images total)
On 14 December, I posted the following on Facebook:
Went to the hardware store yesterday, with a specific idea in mind that I wanted to implement. Asked a young guy if he had any hardware that might work, drawing up what I had in mind, since he was having a hard time grasping what I was on about. Once we’d found two pieces that had a potential to work, and I’d demoed how I’d envisioned it working, he asked “Did you come up with this?”. I answered “Yes, I did. I’m an engineer.” He did a double take. “You’re an engineer?!”. I answered “Yes. Actually I’m an electrical engineer, but I’m still an engineer.” He looked a bit shocked. I may have broken his mind. #middleagedwomencanbeengineerstoo
The day after, I posted
So, I had questions regarding just what my hardware idea was. I’m sorry to say that it’s not very exciting, it’s just two pieces to fasten under two sofa pieces to hook them together. I’m sure it’s googlable in three seconds flat, but I didn’t do that. The nice thing was stumbling on a hinge and an L-bracket that hooked together very nicely. Also, huge kudos goes to the mechanics guy [at work] who agreed to help me out and dismantle the hinge, and smooth down the sharp L-bracket ends.
and the following photos:
The stuff I bought, after one of the mechanical dev guys at work had dismantled the hinges, and smoothed down the L-bracket edges.
Anna 12 Years Old and Yuletide Party
[Originally posted 25 December 2015. Updated 26 January 2016, with more photos below the fold.]
Anna Sólrún turned 12 years old today! How’d that happen?!
We also visited Finnur’s parents as usual for a family yuletide party, ate a lovely meal, and then played a whist tournament… And I WON! For the first time in 21 years of participating! Which shows that it has more to do with luck than with skill. 🙂
Now, as much as I’d like to dump a gazillion photos in here, there is no time, so JUST CLICK HERE FOR ALL OF THE PHOTOS!! (24 images total on this page)
Ms. Anna, all grown up!
Christmas Eve
[Photos from 24 December 2015, posted online 27 January 2016. Yes, I’m working my way backwards.]
The day everybody had been waiting for finally materialized, Christmas Eve (aðfangadagur as we call it), although really it’s just Christmas, or jól. It’s the day where we eat a nice dinner at 6 pm, and then open presents.
The day went by fairly painlessly, as we’d already drawn up what we expected the day to look like for Bjarki, who doesn’t deal well with nebulously defined days where something extremely exciting is supposed to happen at some point. The biggest hick-up was me fighting for too long on the computer to figure out how to give a DRM (Digital Rights Management, it’s a locking thing) protected e-book I’d bought to somebody else, which meant I was late driving out the last presents, and left Finnur all by his lonesome self in the kitchen for the critical last hour before dinner. Thankfully Anna stepped in, and I expect snide remarks about my absence for the foreseeable future.
Other than that, we decided people could wear whatever they chose, and furthermore to just let the kids open all their presents as quickly as they could, to get them to bed on time. Yes, this means I’m not entirely sure who gave whom what, although I have a fair idea for most of the things. We do thank everybody for the lovely gifts, and hope your Yule was a good one too! (18 images total)
Kids in front of the all-important pile of presents!
Happy Everything!
Oh my goodness, where did the past month go?!??! Yes, Finnur went to California for 17 days on Black Friday, and then there was this thing called Christmas to prepare for… so oh well, that’s where it went. But, Yuletide came and went, and here’s the card that we made but never printed out. IRead more
A Triple Birthday Party!
[Photos from Saturday 19 December 2015, posted online 9 February 2016. All hail the foot!]
My brother lives in student housing (with is wife and three kids), so he’s got access to a party room. So, yet again, because it’s awesome (!), we celebrated a triple birthday there: Anna’s 12th, Ylfa’s 6th, and Iðunn’s 4th!
Some photos from the day follow! (27 imagest total) YOU CAN SEE ALL OF THEM BY CLICKING HERE!
Anna decorated her own cake. I’m so happy she’s old enough to do that!
The Days Leading Up To Christmas: Surgery, Concert, Dinners, and Decorations
[Photos from 17 to 23 December 2015. Posted on 9 February 2016. It’s freezing outside!]
Finnur landed on Monday morning, and got a couple of days of relative peace and quiet to reorient himself. Then we were off on the crazy roller-coaster known as the Days Before Christmas. Or as I posted on Facebook on Wednesday 16 December
Just mentally counted down what is scheduled to happen before Christmas, and what needs to happen before Christmas. The two aren’t exactly very compatible. Where’s a blanket I can crawl under and emerge from sometime in January?
The week before Christmas, i.e. on Thursday, Bjarki’s adenoids (nefkirtlar) were removed, and he moved in with his grandparents to recuperate in peace and quiet. That evening Finnur and out went out to have a fancy yuletide-dinner with my workmates. The day after that we went to a fun Christmas concert (Baggalútur), and then out to dinner again.
On the Saturday we celebrated the birthday of Anna and two of her cousins (to be seen in a different post), and then on Sunday I could finally start to actually prepare for Christmas.
The following days were a whirlwind of working, gift shopping, and wrapping presents long into the night. Finally it was 23 December, at which point the tree went up, and got decorated. And somehow we all made it to Christmas. (12 images total)
Thursday 17 December 2015
Bjarki chillin’ with a book after gently waking up from anesthesia, after the doctor removed his adenoids (nefkirtlar). Shall we pile on the parental guilt by mentioning that he’s probably had a nasal infection for the better part of the last couple of years? Hmmm…
December Without Finnur
[Photos from 02-13 December 2015, posted on 7 February 2016. Still on the couch.]
Finnur was in California, visiting his work mother-ship, from 27 November to 14 December. That span covers three weekends. Ayayay!
I’m collecting the photos I took during the first half of December here. I was hunkered down in survival mode, but still stuff happened. Crazy! (41 images total)
Thursday 3 December 2015
Emma loves mixing colors, and painting.