[Photos taken 16 – 22 December 2024, posted online 27 April 2025. My main has been devouring Dungeon Crawler Carl books at an unhealthy rate, I need to get through them so I can start sleeping again…!]
It was time for the annual photoshoot, so I could complete the annual-family-photo-calendar, which I’ve stubbornly made for close to 20 years now. (I clearly suffer from some mental condition!)
Early in the week I got and accepted a job offer! I would be starting at Varist on 7 January 2025. Very exciting!
The week passed in a blur of activity. I did a lot of snow scraping as the local scraper kept leaving snow in unfortunate places. I prepped a new knitting project, attended a birthday party, met Finnur’s coworkers for dinner, there was tidying up for Christmas, and continued decorating. We also started prepping for house guests that would be arriving soon after Christmas.
Monday 16 December 2024
Our yule-card (of sorts). The whole of Iceland has stopped sending Christmas cards, and instead we post photos on Facebook with season’s greetings.
It had snowed enough that the scraper came to clear our road in the morning.
We had less than a week until summer solstice, and this was the sky at 13 (1 pm).
Testing the flashes, to see if they flashed with the camera flash (I just have three Canon flashes as my lights. Simple but perhaps a bit underpowered sometimes.)
I set up upstairs, its easiest to control the environmental light there.
Big boy! He was my guinea pig while I tried to get the lights in a workable position.
With big sis.
All three.
When this is written, Emma’s gotten as tall as Anna (perhaps taller?)
A very weird hand-heart.
The sisters.
The adult.
The youngster.
The sky at 16 (4) in the afternoon.
It kept snowing…
Tuesday 17 December 2024
I can’t remember which body-part was being silly, but apparently I had an appointment with my physio, and I’m sure he gave me some exercises!
It’s hard to see in the photo, but the scraper had left a tall ridge of snow by the public parking lot, and I’d pushed it out into the street. I ended up piling the ridge into a pile on the other side of the road so the lot was usable for all.
They’d also left the ridge on top of the drains, which was the straw that broke this camel’s back (me). I ended up sending the township a note on how it would be wonderful if the scrapers stopped leaving big piles of snow in front of the town’s own parking lot, because if the cars couldn’t park there, they’d park in the street instead, and end up blocking the scrapers. I also asked them to please stop leaving piles on top of the drains, which I know they can see on a map the scrapers have onboard. Lo and behold, all of a sudden the scraper dudes started making an effort to clear the drains and the parking lot! Oh, the power of words and images!!
This child appears to not have ADHD. She can decide to tidy up her own messy corner, and finish the job without any outside prodding. Quite amazing!
Busy vacuuming. Now that’s she’s taller than me, I need to rethink that area under the stairs, as it won’t be used as a chill-out spot anymore.
As it was patterned, the shop helpers told me the color couldn’t be too dark, so this was what I ended up with.
At another December birthday party, with the other set of cousins!
Thursday 19 December 2024
Went to check on mom’s apartment, and bumped into the image on the lower right on a table. Decided to quickly hang it up using…
… ties from a mask that was also on the table. It would be easy to move later, and no longer in anybody’s way. (Yes, the local hospital has been putting in place an internal mask mandate every now and then when they’ve started to get overwhelmed by infections.)
That night we met up with Finnur’s coworkers and their significant others at a restaurant downtown. Yet another fancy cocktail!
Very good!
A chocolate ball that melted when hot sauce was poured over it. It was ridiculously good.
Fancy lights in a stairwell, as we were leaving.
The Chrismas cat was in its usual spot, as we waited for Bjarki to come and pick us up. So nice having kids with drivers licences!
Friday 20 December 2024
I bumped into my cousin at the cafe! Had a lovely time chatting!
Finnur’s blue t-shirts. I was half tempted to put them on hangers and sort by color, but decided against it.
I made it up the stairs after leg-day, yay!!
Trying some new duvet covers. The Black Friday sales are good for buying stuff at a discount for yourself as well as others!
Saturday 21 December 2024
I vaguely recall Finnur had gong up to the summer house to check that everything was in order. Therefore, dinner was my responsibility.
I’m a big fan of perfume free soaps!
That evening I suggested we watch Amelie. I’d forgotten just how “French” it is. After Emma asked what the age rating on it was I discovered that it’s “Rated R for sexual content” in the USA, 15 in the UK, and “Tous publics” or “for all” in France. Emma bailed on it fairly fast.
Sunday 22 December 2024
Emma got a very cute Hello Kitty themed card deck in her shoe. We laid all the cards out to admire the cuteness.
The tree-acquisition-master with this year’s tree.
Footed!
Some hot chocolate had bubbled out of its pot, and Finnur found some chemical trick to remove the burnt residue.
Decorating-partners-in-crime by a fully decorated tree.
Siblings on a narrow couch. It wasn’t long until Bjarki was booted off!
We had guests coming over after Christmas to stay with us. I discovered that our old air-mattresses were wimpy-wimps that were not really suitable for anybody older than a 6-year-old.
I asked around, and it turned out we could borrow proper tall self-inflating mattresses from two friends. Problem solved.
