Yule Ends, Socialization Begins

2021-01-01Uncategorized Standard

[Photos taken 01-14 January 2021, posted online 30 May 2021. After weeks of draught, we’re now looking at rain for the foreseeable future.]

Finally, the difficult year 2020 was over! We began 2021 relatively slowly, waiting anxiously to see if we’d get a post-holiday Covid-19 explosion, but as the days ticked by, it appeared that the much-touted yule-bubbles had worked their magic, and very few cases were diagnosed outside of quarantine. Slowly but surely, we began meeting people again…

All schools went back to in-person teaching, even Anna’s, although with quite a few restrictions such as masks for everybody older than 16 years old. I kept working from home, barely managed to keep going out for jogs/walks, ginger-bread cookies got decorated, the ginger-bread house got demolished, fireworks were lit, decorations packed away, and Bjarki’s confirmation classes began. (65-ish images total)

Friday 01 January 2021

The number of local people diagnosed outside of quarantine from mid-summer 2020, until 19 May 2021. Note that the date format is Day-Month-Year, like it should be in all civilized countries (looking at you, crazy US, with your Month-Day-Year shenanigans!)
The view from our bedroom window on the first evening of 2021.

Saturday 02 January 2021

Anna making icing for the ginger-bread figures. Emma made sure we wouldn’t forget to decorate them!
Ginger-bread, now with added sugar and a tiny bit of protein!
With her creation.

Sunday 03 January 2021

I was feeling antsy, so I went out for a walk. I found these firework leftovers at a parking lot by the church.
The lights looked lovely. This is at 4 pm.
It was warm and wet enough to be muddy.
Mirrored selfie overlooking Lake Vífilsstaðavatn.
Looking back from where I came. It sure was muggy.
I took a random small path back, and was surprised to find a bench by it!

Monday 04 January 2021

This is what I spent the holidays reading. I’m a sucker for pretty colors and pretty fonts!
I unpacked the chocolate tree I’d gotten from work. It disappeared rather quickly one day…
Looks like I made it out on a jog!
Mount Esja hidden by clouds. Bah, humbug.
Gymnastics practices kept going, but parents were forbidden from entering the building, and thus had to wait outside in cars. That’s Bjarki in the blue shirt.

Tuesday 05 January 2021

Anna and I went downtown to the library, and stopped by mom’s to take Spori out for a walk.
How many toys can fit into one mouth?
My toys!
At home, the yule-tree was still doing well.

Wednesday 06 January 2021

The weather had gone cold again, but I made it out on a jog while Emma had her piano-lesson.
That’s one old bridge, but it still works.
Pretty skies at 3:30 pm.
As promised, Finnur took the younger two out to finish shooting up the remainder of the fireworks.
Looking at the pretty lights.
As it was the last day of yule, it was time to demolish and devour the ginger-bread house.
Emma politely bonked on it…
… and then Bjarki smashed it to pieces, much to his surprise.
Every kid for him/herself!

Thursday 07 January 2021

Finnur spotted walking his laptop.
Before we tore the decorations off the tree, I took a few photos. Emma made that heart.
Swirly.
Shiny pretty colors.
Stars!

Saturday 09 January 2021

Nobody told us that being an “adult” means figuring out what’s for dinner for the rest of ones life. So this spoke to us: Mom: What do you want for dinner? Kid A: Spaghetti! Kid B: No, tacos! Kid A: Spaghetti! Kid B: Tacos! Mom: You heard me… spaghetti tacos. Dad: Have you been drinking?
Pit stop at Subway on our way to house #2.
The N1 company, that runs a bunch of gas stations, has recently booted the energy company ON off their premises, and installed their own charging stations. Sadly, it turned out this one was broken, and refused to begin charging. It made for a slightly nerve-wracking drive.
The weather was mild enough that we easily made it to Borgarnes on a less than full battery.
After a 20 minute charging stop in Borgarnes, we continued to house #2.
Epic BBQ-ing in progress.
Oh my goodness, people that are not us!!!

Sunday 10 January 2021

I went out to BBQ an early lunch… and everything was frozen solid!
-10C/14F !
Frost-needles.
A pretty sky at 11 am.
Kiddos enjoying the inside warmth.
In a fit of mild insanity, I took off super early with Bjarki so he could attend gymnastics practice at 1 pm in town. After doing it once, I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle, and haven’t repeated it since. Happily, the weather played along, with zero wind, so I made it to the gymnasium with 6 km to spare, which got me to the next fast charger. The km game began getting on my nerves though… and I began contemplating updating to an “adult” battery, now that the eGolf was almost 6 years old.
Bjarki’s practice was two hours long, which left time for me to hunker down at a nearby cafe, close to where I grew up.
With Christmas officially over, it was time to pack away the decorations.

Monday 11 January 2021

Out and about, with the sun in my eyes.
A mixed blessing.

Thursday 14 January 2021

I found myself downtown for the first time in ages, as Bjarki’s confirmation classes by the secular humanist organization Siðmennt began. They would run weekly for 11 weeks, so this became a bit of a ritual.
Pretty lights, cake and hot chocolate, yes please.
I used to visit this café quite regularly, but the length of the drive began bugging me, and I found other cafes closer to home.
It was dark by the time the class was over. This first class was “getting to know each other”, and Bjarki was not too pleased, but subsequent classes piqued his interests, and by the end he was sad when it ended, as he’d made good friends, and shared a lot of laughs.