[Photos taken 07 – 15 December 2024, posted online 26 April 2025. The rain is making the plants happy after a long draught.]
The march towards Christmas continued, with the promise of longer days soon. Christmas decorations had popped up everywhere, and I started knitting a hat to stave off doom-scrolling.
A lot of time was spent gathering, wrapping, and delivering things. We had dinner with friends, celebrated a birthday, I helped a brother hang things, and drove mom to the airport. There was a musical recital, fun at the gym, a sewing club, a passport application, as well as a second job interview!
One is rarely as busy as when one is unemployed!
Saturday 07 December 2024
The sky still orange-y at 20 minutes before noon, as the birds waited for food.
Getting some things for mom, as she was about to journey to Sweden to stay with one of my brothers. Icelandic candy is in high demand over there!
The sky still had light at shortly past 4 that afternoon.
Lucky us!
Sunday 08 December 2024
Yet another trip to the shopping mall to buy presents.
Handy-man-helper time. We managed to hang a large round mirror on that wall, yay for strong muscles!
I wondered if these could be retrofitted to hold regular curtains, but decided it would be a bad idea.
Parking charges everywhere! I think this may have been when the payment wouldn’t go through. Turns out you have to pay extra if you use their app. I was not happy.
I found a free hat pattern, and decided to use wool I’d gotten from mom a couple of decades ago, or so. Knitting helps avoid doomscrolling.
Monday 09 December 2024
Festive decorations, part 1.
Festive decorations, part 2.
Tuesday 10 December 2024
I drove mom to the airport very, very early. I think one of those bags was just presents from the families!
I’ve learnt over the years that blurb.com usually has 50% off on Black Friday, and this year was no exception. Was a nice deadline to finish my wedding present to this lovely couple!
Hat making progress. Patterns are fun!
Wednesday 11 December 2024
Wedding present delivered, only a year plus two months and a few days late!
Late lunch at Ikea, picking up presents, among other things.
Picked up seeds for the birds. These would last a few weeks…
Hat-making progress! I would learn that washing this wool would make everything stretch out.
Thursday 12 December 2024
Approaching the most barricaded house in town, the US embassy. It looks ridiculous, especially compared to all the other official buildings in town, but I guess there’s a template, and it does not get changed between countries?
We had a passport to renew.
Last time this guy would need his parents to accompany him to passport renewals!
Be careful while walking on ice!
Now it was Emma’s turn to play a song at a recital. She wasn’t really looking forward to it, but she did a good job.
Pretty fruits arrived!
Emma recently accepted flank steak as an acceptable meat for fajitas.
Loops count rapidly going down.
All done!
Friday 13 December 2024
Busy birds at 9 in the morning.
Second job interview, at the same place as the week before.
The gym session was yule-themed, so we showed up looking yule-y!
This was good stuff!
One of the ladies had a birthday, and brought chocolates!
Finnur being a good friend and magicking up a favorite dish for some friends.
Saturday 14 December 2024
Cousins.
Clementines mean Christmas!
Yummy pizza!
There was so much wind that a Christmas calendar flew out the window!
Present wrapping continued…
Hat got washed with wool soap, and put on a hot spot on the floor.
Sunday 15 December 2024
I drove past a manhole entry that was open, as a scraper had torn the top off, and left it on the street!
Sewing club brunch, yum!
I took Emma to see her cousin in the Christmas ice-skating show.
No falling, please!
There were hardly any boys or men there, so a Kenough joke was apt.
Final lineup, doing a wave, after a fun show!
A quick chat.
Father and daughter.
Emma lighting the second candle out of three that day. Only one more Sunday until Christmas Eve!
