Games, Gingerbread & Good Times

2019-12-26Friends, Hrefna's family Standard

[Photos from 26 December – 30 December 2019, posted online 04 July 2020. We should have had US visitors for a long weekend stay, but no US residents are being admitted into Iceland due to the botched US Covid-19 response.]

The holiday season was a good one for employees, as in we didn’t have to take many days off from work to get a 10-day-long vacation.

We spent the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve meeting people, playing games, and even made a ginger-bread house while staying at house #2! (50-ish photos total)

Thursday 26 December 2019

It was a dim and wet world at 4:40 pm in Hafnarfjörður, where I parked myself for a while for a bit of blogging.
That afternoon we headed over to my uncle’s place for a family gathering. Games were about to be played!
Cousins (sons of siblings) discussing matters.
We took over the living room.
Selfie-time to prove I was there!
After chowing down yummy food, it was time to play games.
This was my first time playing Forbidden Island, it was tense but we won the game!

Friday 27 December 2019

That evening we drove to house #2, to spend some quality time there with friends. I’m always so surprised pipes manage to contain water so well. The roads were clear, and very little snow in sight.

Saturday 28 December 2019

Hot-tubbing during daylight.
Post-lunch gaming.
Trains were built.
Bjarki getting a card.
The view to the mountain. Where did it go?
Yup, it began snowing…
We drove to Borgarnes (town) in a massive snowfall, and went swimming.
Obligatory post-swimming stop to refuel bodies.
Decorations trying to thaw snow.
Inside the coziest cafe there is.
Holla excels at playing with the kiddos.
The board getting complicated!
The snow status shortly before midnight.
Finnur had taken the electric e-Golf on a shopping trip to Borgarnes while we went swimming (driving the big electric Jaguar, so nice). On the way back, Finnur had a really tough time getting up the last hill, due to the snow. He eventually made it to the top with the pushing-help of random strangers, but the wheels spun so much that the guess-o-meter got very confused, and predicted barely any range for a while. Yes, that’s the tank at 70%, and it should say something like 80-90 km. 😉

Sunday 29 December 2019

The snow status at lunchtime. Thankfully not severe enough to lock in the small car.
House #2, after most of the snow fell off the roof-edge.
The task of the day was ginger-bread making! Those pink paper-pieces are the freshly designed house-of-the-year walls and roof.
House pieces being baked in the oven.
Baking with a view.
Ready for assembly!
Anna, the master house-assembler and decorator.
All the pieces in their place. Time to lay down candy.
Pretty pastel sky.
Coming together nicely.
Ready! While Anna was finishing up, we started cleaning and packing stuff into the cars.
Many other ginger-breads were decorated.
Emma in action.
Bjarki making a tree.
So. Much. Sugar!
Emma happy with the results.
By 4 pm we were about ready to take off back home. First, a few photos of the lovely view.
We left a bit of food for any birds that might be out and about.
Bjarki in front of the lake.
We made it home with 15 km left on the small-car tank. That’s plenty! 🙂
Happily, the house survived the drive, and got to enjoy its short life on our dining table.

Monday 30 December 2019

After all the excitement of the previous days, we had a calm day, where the highlight was a quick tea-time visit from Logi and Tassanee, our friends from California that now live in Canada, but were visiting Iceland over the holidays.
They hadn’t aged one bit, but their kids had sprouted!!