[Photos taken 01 – 14 December 2023, posted online 18 June 2024. Yesterday was our 30-years-as-a-couple anniversary. Time flies!]
Peak darkness approached, and yule loomed. To lighten the spirits I attended an advent concert, and attempted to start playing Gloomhaven.
After the massive layoffs at the end of November, my work attempted to literally butter and beer the remaining staff up by providing an avalanche of free food and drink in the following week.
The annual photo-shoot with the kids happened, and so did Emma’s piano recital. We went on the hunt for an “adult” guitar for Bjarki, as Finnur went on a work-trip to Ireland. I would later join him there for a long weekend.
Friday 01 December 2023
On 1 December 1918, Denmark recognized Iceland as a fully independent and sovereign state, known as the “Kingdom of Iceland”, which was freely associated to Denmark in a personal union with the Danish king. Or to put it more bluntly, Denmark was so busy in WWI that Iceland used the opportunity to declare independence in all matters except foreign ones. Harpa waved an LED-Icelandic-flag to mark the date, as Finnur and I went downtown for dinner.
At work, the Data Corner started opening a count-down-to-yule calendar (yes, we had two copies!).
As it happened, Anna and some friends had decided to play “baseball” on the grassy field below this church, not realizing (or just plain ignoring) just how freezing cold it was outside. During the concert intermission she and two others had shown up.
I moved up to the second floor after the intermission, as sitting so far off to the side didn’t provide a very balanced ear-experience.
From a slightly different spot. I think I knew three people in the band.
The program. For an amateur band, they’re really very good!
Anna made dinner! She’s a lot more adventurous than I am.
Monday 04 December 2023
After the mass-layoff at work the week before, all the managers were asked to do group-activities to attempt to salvage morale, and to let people have much needed discussions. My “chapter” went out for dinner and beer.
Finnur would have enjoyed the game going on on the monitors.
Walking home afterwards, I discovered that the township had started decorating the local trees.
Night-setting on the phone.
Tuesday 05 December 2023
Time for the annual I’m-stressed-before-Christmas 120-kg-deadlift. Looks like my shoulder was back from the dead.
Maybe this was when I discovered the part at the top that clogs up, spreading all the ground coffee all over the place?
Walking during a kid’s music lesson.
By the heated pond. I’m pretty sure that it gets warm run-off water from the buildings above so it never freezes over. The birds like it.
Thursday 07 December 2023
On the theme of partying-makes-sad-feelings-go-away, the party-organizers at work organized a Christmas buffet for a couple of groups.
Good food is good!
Friday 08 December 2023
The eat-your-sad-feelings-away-with-free-food theme continued at work, with a Christmas lunch buffet for the whole company at the Hilton hotel.
I parked on the other side of the road from the hotel, by the most tone-deaf and heavily fortified building in the whole capital area, aka the US Embassy. It’s especially cringeworthy when you consider that you can basically knock on the door of the president’s house.
Occupying the big room in the Hilton hotel for lunch.
Buffet stations outside the ball-room.
Good stuff for sad feelings.
Pretty stairwell.
Most of my coworkers went on partying, but I decided I’d be better off going to squat my sad-feelings away at the gym.
Saturday 09 December 2023
Hungry birds.
Maximum daylight at 12:38.
At Emma’s yule piano recital.
She’s not a big fan of recitals, and squeezed out of doing it this spring.
Grapefruit with sugar! Brings back memories!
Annual yule-tide photo-session of the kids!
All three!
Emma.
Bjarki.
Anna.
Wrapping more presents! Madness!
Sunday 10 December 2023
Music-players at the local mall adding a bit of festive spirit.
My Internal outrage center exploded when I realized that the “app” that most of the elementary school system runs on is so poorly programmed that even though it was a one point designed to “work on a screen”, it was only designed to work in one aspect ratio (a phone, it looks like), and this is what it looks like on an iPad… The app makes me want to claw my eyes out on a regular basis.
Monday 11 December 2023
Finnur had left on a work-trip to Ireland, so I was once again responsible for dinner.
The other type of salmon on offer.
Tuesday 12 December 2023
Running low on ideas to document gym-going.
After Bjarki’s band recital, my brain decided he’d reached the age and level of getting an “adult” guitar. We began visiting the local stores to try out guitars. Thankfully they have rooms full of amplifiers just for this purpose. My plan was to throw a bunch of guitars in his lap, have him play them, then go away, come back later, try some others, rinse, repeat.
Wednesday 13 December 2023
At the “other” instrument store. (Yes, there’s a third one, but we somehow never made it there.) We finally settled on a guitar in the new year.
Thursday 14 December 2023
Picking Emma up from swim practice, thankfully indoors, as the weather was not friendly. She again bailed on practicing swimming over the holidays, but this time around the club declined to refund us half the whole-winter training fees. I’m pretty confident I will not be using their services again.
The stapled-together bird-table (house) finally fell apart, so I tried stuffing the fatty stuff onto the other feed-houses. It was a mixed success.
How you know there’s a growing teenager in the house…
