Ginger Bread House / Yule 2023 / Anna’s 20th Birthday!
[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
2022 Yule, Anna’s 19th Birthday & Ginger-Bread
[Photos taken 24 – 30 December 2022, posted online 01 August 2023. Just drove one brother & family to the airport, they’re moving to Sweden!]
With my iffy health, we had to cancel having mom and brother over for Christmas Eve dinner and present openings. Instead, I lay in bed for most of the day, but then rallied and spent the evening downstairs, tucked away in the corner, as far away from everyone as possible.
The day after, it was Anna’s 19th birthday. She spent the morning making desserts, and we had a present opening ceremony before Finnur took the kiddos to the annual Christmas Day feast at his parents’ place, while I returned to being mostly horizontal.
The second day of Christmas was suitably low energy. Much to my consternation, I was still vertically challenged the following day, and Finnur’s youngest sister went with the gang to a year-end comedy show.
Finally, after a week of barely staying vertical, I got better, and walked outside for the first time in forever. I went into work for one day, then took another one off and we finally made a ginger bread house. Which brought us to the last day of the year…
Saturday 24 December 2022
Yule-Photos, Yule-Parties & Yule-Performances
[Photos taken 11 – 23 December 2022, posted online 31 July 2023. Week 3 of summer vacation is beginning, and I’m hoping I’m over the “constantly-napping” phase of summer vacation!]
This year, I colluded with my siblings and spouses to make a photo-book for mom of her descendants. We met up at my oldest brother’s place, where a green screen was put up, and photos were snapped.
In the future we’ll be avoiding green screens, as it’s REALLY HARD to work with hair and green screens, but middle-brother found a pretty good solution in post-processing…!
I also did another photo-session for another grandmother, then it was onto the last sprint before Christmas.
There were haircuts, Finnur took off for a week to work in the UK, I attended a choir-concert, Emma’s swim department demo, there were a couple of work-parties, I met girlfriends for brunch, went to a dinner and play with mom and two brothers (one fell ill), snow started falling with a vengeance, parking lots were cleared, there was a day with two birthday parties, stress was released at the gym, birds were fed, and then my body caved in and I fell ill, and had a hard time staying vertical over Christmas. Bah-humbug!
Sunday 11 December 2022
Yule 2021, Anna’s 18th Birthday & Self-Quarantine
[Photos taken 24 – 30 December 2021, posted online 01 May 2022. The past week included two 20+ km e-bike rides and two hikes, and I’m still mostly standing, if a bit stiffly.]
Finally, finally (!!!) yule arrived! To lessen tensions while waiting for the clock to strike 6 pm, and the formal start of Christmas, I took Emma out on a walk up to the observation point on a nearby hill. It was a little colder out than we expected, but it was a nice walk.
Mom and baby-bro Bjarni joined us for Christmas dinner, and opening of presents.
The following day we met Finnur’s extended family at his parents’ place for a yule day feast, and celebrated Anna’s 18th birthday! Late the following day one of the guests tested positive for covid, so we went on a self-imposed quarantine, with Finnur and Emma hunkering down at house #2, while the big kids and I whiled away the days in town. (85-ish images total)
Friday 24 December 2021
Yule 2020, Anna’s 17th Birthday & Gingerbread House
[Photos taken 24-30 December 2020, posted online 16 May 2021. The weather is stationary, but we set up two new veggie-gardens for Anna yesterday.]
Icelandic authorities encouraged everyone to plan the festivities in “max ten 16+ year-olds yule-bubbles”. This meant the usual yuletide parties were canceled, so it was a super quiet holiday season. Furthermore, the bubbles implied separation in time, so my mom and doggy came over for yule, then a week later we went to Finnur’s parents’ place for New Year’s Eve, along with one of his sisters and her family.
Anna turned 17 years old on Christmas Day, and much of the day was spent in the kitchen. We took the week between yule and new year’s off from work, and there was much chilling, at least one jog, a library visit, a few cafe-visits, more kitchen activities, a little bit of furniture and Lego building, and just before the new year, I finally worked up the mental energy to make the annual ginger-bread house. (80-ish images total)
Thursday 24 December 2020
Anna 16 Years Old & Yule Party
[Photos taken 25 December 2019, posted online on 27 June 2020. Bjarki turns into a teenager tomorrow!]
On Christmas Day, Anna turned 16 years old. She opened presents at home, and then we all went to Finnur’s parents’ place to eat great food, play social-whist, and then Anna opened some more presents! (25 images total)
Wednesday 25 December 2019
Open-Yule-Presents Day
[Photos taken 24 December 2019, posted online 20 June 2020. Funny to look back to the dark winter now as the daylight never really leaves.]
The mad post-renovation-tidying continued while Finnur magic-ed a festive yule-meal in the kitchen. After eating a delicious meal, we opened all the presents. A good time was had by all! (25-ish images)
Tuesday 24 December 2019
Anna’s 15th Birthday / Christmas Day 2018
[Photos takend on 25 December 2018, posted online 24 December 2019. It rained last night, here’s hoping the burn grass feels better.]
Christmas Eve rolled into Christmas Day, and thus Anna’s 15th birthday!
It was a fairly typical 25 December. We made desserts to take to Finnur’s parents’ place and then Anna opened her presents. The party was well attended, the food was excellent as always, social whist was played, dessert was eaten, and Anna even got some more presents!
All in all, a very good day! (40-ish images total)
Christmas Eve 2018
[Photos from 24 December 2018, posted online 23 June 2019. The still no rain for realz since early May. Also, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite came out today.]
Yule-day came and went pretty much as expected. We had my mom and one brother over for dinner, Finnur was master chef as usual, the kids managed to not go quite crazy, and I think I didn’t land my self in a need-to-finish-at-the-last-minute job like the last two previous times. All in all, a highly lovely yule!
Season’s Greetings!!
[Photo taken on 18 December 2016, and lets make believe I posted it online on 24 December 2016… 🙂 ] Merry Everything!!! Gleðilegt allt!! 🙂Read more