[Photos taken 23 – 30 December 2023, posted online 20 June 2024. I now have a 67 year old mom!?!]
This yule went pretty much by the book. No surprises.
We managed to organize ourselves enough to make the annual ginger-bread-house, and some cookies. Then it was on to Christmas itself, which we celebrated on Christmas Eve as is the Icelandic custom, hosting my mom and one of my brothers. We spent Christmas Day at Finnur’s parents’ place, eating and playing social whist. That was also the day that Anna turned 20 years old!
My work gave us the days between Christmas and New Year’s off, so the days were calm and restorative. We ended the week by going with friends to the “summer” house, as the temperatures plunged outside.
Saturday 23 December 2023
This year’s entirely-home-made ginger-bread-house.
The day began at the gym, where my brother and his mentee had decided to host a special holiday session.
Elven warm-up game about to start!
Mr. Very Little Mercy.
I survived!
Ginger bread making in progress. Anna decided this was the year we’d do a cylindrical tower! There was much wrangling over how to implement it. In the end we baked a large flat sheet, and then wrapped it around a covered bottle when it came out of the oven. I then hunkered outside with it in the frost while it cooled enough to mostly hold its shape.
Royal icing to the rescue to save it from falling to pieces!
We used a funnel to figure out the geometry needed to make a conical roof.
Anna starting assembly.
There was also some prefabricated houses floating around.
The top of the tower was still cooling when it was time for dinner.
Suis vide‘d turkey breasts and sweet potato mash. Yum!
Anna was master decorator as usual, but she delegates the icicles to me.
Aerial view, some tower, some cookies. That went better than expected!
Sunday 24 December 2023 – Christmas Eve
I can’t remember how we spent the day, but by late afternoon we’d decked the table.
Siblings in front of the tree.
Bjarki and brother playing a video game while Finnur slaved away in the kitchen.
Four lit candles.
Appetizer-time!
Classic food is classic.
Ice-cream (with and without lactose) for dessert!
Bjarki playing santa.
It was an excellent harvest.
Bjarki got his first electric razor. We had so much fun reading the directions… apparently there’s an app?!
It took three people to decipher the razor instructions!
Anna keeping clear of the razor-mayhem!
Monday 25 December 2023 – Christmas Day
It has become customary for us to bring desserts to the Christmas Day party, as it’s also Anna’s birthday. This means the poor thing has to be up pretty early on her birthday every year, but c’est la vie!
This year’s experiment was a raspberry/lemon cake.
We were also tasked with bringing “horns”.
“Horns” baking.
Raspberry-lemon cake ready! It was juicy!
Arrival at the party-place.
The kitchen gang.
Living room filling up.
Table filling up with food.
The traveling social whist cup, and playing cards, waiting their turn.
Going over the correct answers to the “modern Icelandic” quiz. The points were inversely correlated with a person’s age.
Anna got birthday presents!
Dessert time!
Decorations snapshot.
The witch coming in for a landing.
Social whist time!
Results announced.
The happy winner!
The exit watchers!
Anna opening more birthday presents at home, at the end of the day.
A cozy 20 year old!
Tuesday 26 December 2023 – Second Day of Christmas
Very holiday-esque snow outside!
Emma and me watching instructions on YouTube to figure out how to make squish-balls.
When we arrived home, I scraped the snow from our parking lot, in a desperate attempt to avoid the usual massive sheet of ice that usually forms if I don’t.
Wednesday 27 December 2023
Emma continued her adventures in squish-ball making.
Having read reviews that mentioned the plastic clamps failing (aside from just the plastic itself tearing as it aged), I insisted on a secondary closing mechanism.
The “pipe-cleaners” proved their worth later that evening, when one of the plastic clamps opened up. Phew!
Thursday 28 December 2023
Late-morning gymming. My company didn’t give an “official” Christmas gift (i.e. a gift card), instead we all got a holiday between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Mmmmm… avocado toast ftw!
We still had snow.
On yet another guitar-testing round, now with Anna in tow.
Trying a tiny hamburger-joint.
Photobombed by a nutcracker.
The garbage-bin-shed working as we hoped, keeping snow off of the bins. So happy!!
Continuing with the Doctor Who specials.
Friday 29 December 2023
Spot the birdy.
I managed to hand-wave the snow-scraper into also clearing the public parking lot opposite our house. They never do it if they aren’t specifically asked by the residents, but it makes a huge difference.
Gunky snow by the edge of the road.
Pit stop en route to the “summer” house.
The view was nice, but the road was a bit narrower than usual with the snow on the edges.
Bjarki driving. I kept reminding him not to drift into the snow at the edge of the road…
There were horses outside!
The road to the summer house had been cleared, but we hadn’t realized it’s possible to ask for the parking lot to also be cleared. Instead, Finnur got himself stuck, and then had to spend a lot of time and energy shoveling himself out.
Snow-house building in progress.
It was very cold outside, but the charger still worked.
Quick trip to Borgarnes to buy a couple of essentials!
Eeek, it was -18 C / -0.4 F.
Cozy inside.
The moon was very bright.
It was like a floodlight!
Saturday 30 December 2023
Snow-house building continued.
Silly kids.
I’m not sure why we went back to Borgarnes town, but a car needed more charge.
Sliding!
Cozy cafe time.
Yet another nutcracker.
Back at the “summer” house, Emma lit candles in the snow-house.
