New Year’s Eve 2016 – Hello 2017!
[Photos from 31 December 2016, posted online 13 March 2017. Trying not to eavesdrop at a cafe. Some people talk loudly.]
Poor Finnur fell victim to the flu early on the last day of the year. It made the festivities a little different from usual.
After picking up some pre-ordered fireworks, I took the kids to Finnur’s parents’ place, along with their extended family. We stayed until about 9 pm, when we drove off to go see a couple of “proper” firework shows, where they use the “big” bombs.
On our way back home, we stumbled on the third show seemingly being run from an empty lot by our local grocery store. I still don’t know who was behind it, but it was very cool.
We watched the annual comedy hour with a barely-awake Finnur. When that finished at 23:30, I took the kids up to the hill above our house to enjoy the view as the city area went bananas. The kids liked it, except for Emma who lost her mind because I wouldn’t let her climb the tall Buddha stupa like her older siblings.
She apparently has some misconceptions about gravity! (24 images total, and 4 videos in a playlist)
New Year’s Eve from the hill above our house.
Inbetween Yule and New Year’s
[Photos from 27-30 December 2016, posted online 12 March 2017. Fueled by a cinnamon bun!]
This year was a bad one for employees, as most of the public holidays associated with Christmas fell on a weekend. The only public holiday of the entire season was Monday the 26th! (The unions need to start fixing this!!)
I did get an extra day off (Tue), and I took a sick day off (Wed), but ended up at work for two days (Thu & Fri), which was a bit weird. Here are a few snapshots from that week (9 images total)
Tuesday 27 December 2016
We took the kids skating, even Emma! If you know where to look, you can see Finnur guiding Emma’s slide-rail.
2nd Day of Christmas Mini-Family Party
[Photos from 26 December 2016, posted online 07 March 2017. Fueled by carrot cake!]
My uncle and wife hosted my mom plus kids, spouses, and grandkids for a lovely afternoon at their place. We ate too much, the kids played, the adults chatted, and a board game got played! (15 images total)
A feast!
Christmas Day 2016 = Anna’s 13th Birthday
[Photos from 25 December 2016, posted online 05 March 2017. At least she’s still a teenager!]
Christmas Day marked Anna becoming a teenager, as she’s now 13 years old! She got presents from us at home, and then we attended the annual Christmas Day party at Finnur’s parent’s place.
This year we broke from tradition and did not play social whist, somehow the time to do it never materialized. But it was a lovely day nonetheless! (42 images total)
Anna, the teenager, with her rapidly aging parents!
Christmas Eve 2016
[Photos from 24 December 2016, posted online 04 March 2017. There snow outside now, but weirdly bright compared to Christmas.]
The all-important Christmas Eve finally arrived. I spent the day putting the finishing touches on a couple of presents that turned out to require a lot more effort than initially anticipated (for the second year in a row, why can’t I get this done earlier!!), but it was a nice day nonetheless. (14 images total)
The yuletide tree up and decorated, and about to be lifted off the ground with all the presents around it! The image captures the siblings pretty accurately, the girls were happy excited, but Bjarki had trouble finding joy in the uncertainty of what the presents contained.
Season’s Greetings!!
[Photo taken on 18 December 2016, and lets make believe I posted it online on 24 December 2016… 🙂 ] Merry Everything!!! Gleðilegt allt!! 🙂Read more
Gingerbread for the Yule of 2016
[Photos from 23 December 2016, posted online 25 February 2016. Just in the nick of time.]
Anna has learnt to be very persistent in reminding us to schedule ginger-bread-house-making before Christmas. This year, we managed to squeeze it in on 23 December, and to make sure we carried through with the plan, we invited Holla and Óli to join us. (13 images total)
House parts, and a few extra nuggets.
Snow! Finally!!
[Photo from 19 December 2016, posted online 25 February 2017. After a crazy warm February, we finally have some snow on the ground again.] This winter has been warm, unusually warm. But the warmth has been interrupted here and there with small stretches of enough chill to carry snow with it. December was no exception,Read more
Living Room Photo Studio – Christmas Edition
[Sunday 18 December 2016, posted online on 17 February 2017. April weather, and the days are getting long. Good stuff!]
Three years ago, my brothers came over and I took photos of them and all the kids, which we (Pétur and I) made into a book to give mom for Christmas.
Since then, one grandchild has been added to the mix, and they’ve of course all gotten older, so we thought it was high time to make a new book with the grand-kids.
We were short on time so we used a local printer, with a local program, which doesn’t offer nice pdfs to view online, but if I do recreate the book, I’ll post a link to it here.
Until then, here are some of the photos. Oh, and the older generation also found themselves in front of the camera, but unfortunately we were missing brother Bjarni, who was busy (and also, kid-less!).
Pétur performed the photoprocessing, he’s a hero! Below are a few of the photos that made the cut, here are the rest. (27 images total)
Bjarki and Anna “debbing” (isn’t that what the young ones are calling this pose?)
Granddad Visits
[Wednesday 14 – 17 December 2016, posted online on 14 February 2017. Just twooo monthsssieessss laaate.]
Granddad Gunnar came over to Iceland while I was in Canada. He was scheduled to depart the day after I arrived, so we just caught sight of him on his last evening in the country. Other than that, Christmas kept creeping closer, with a to-do list a mile-long… (7 images total)
Wednesday 14 December 2016
Emma painting while Granddad Gunnar looks on.