Anna 12 Years Old and Yuletide Party
[Originally posted 25 December 2015. Updated 26 January 2016, with more photos below the fold.]
Anna Sólrún turned 12 years old today! How’d that happen?!
We also visited Finnur’s parents as usual for a family yuletide party, ate a lovely meal, and then played a whist tournament… And I WON! For the first time in 21 years of participating! Which shows that it has more to do with luck than with skill. 🙂
Now, as much as I’d like to dump a gazillion photos in here, there is no time, so JUST CLICK HERE FOR ALL OF THE PHOTOS!! (24 images total on this page)
Ms. Anna, all grown up!
Christmas Eve
[Photos from 24 December 2015, posted online 27 January 2016. Yes, I’m working my way backwards.]
The day everybody had been waiting for finally materialized, Christmas Eve (aðfangadagur as we call it), although really it’s just Christmas, or jól. It’s the day where we eat a nice dinner at 6 pm, and then open presents.
The day went by fairly painlessly, as we’d already drawn up what we expected the day to look like for Bjarki, who doesn’t deal well with nebulously defined days where something extremely exciting is supposed to happen at some point. The biggest hick-up was me fighting for too long on the computer to figure out how to give a DRM (Digital Rights Management, it’s a locking thing) protected e-book I’d bought to somebody else, which meant I was late driving out the last presents, and left Finnur all by his lonesome self in the kitchen for the critical last hour before dinner. Thankfully Anna stepped in, and I expect snide remarks about my absence for the foreseeable future.
Other than that, we decided people could wear whatever they chose, and furthermore to just let the kids open all their presents as quickly as they could, to get them to bed on time. Yes, this means I’m not entirely sure who gave whom what, although I have a fair idea for most of the things. We do thank everybody for the lovely gifts, and hope your Yule was a good one too! (18 images total)
Kids in front of the all-important pile of presents!
The Days Leading Up To Christmas: Surgery, Concert, Dinners, and Decorations
[Photos from 17 to 23 December 2015. Posted on 9 February 2016. It’s freezing outside!]
Finnur landed on Monday morning, and got a couple of days of relative peace and quiet to reorient himself. Then we were off on the crazy roller-coaster known as the Days Before Christmas. Or as I posted on Facebook on Wednesday 16 December
Just mentally counted down what is scheduled to happen before Christmas, and what needs to happen before Christmas. The two aren’t exactly very compatible. Where’s a blanket I can crawl under and emerge from sometime in January?
The week before Christmas, i.e. on Thursday, Bjarki’s adenoids (nefkirtlar) were removed, and he moved in with his grandparents to recuperate in peace and quiet. That evening Finnur and out went out to have a fancy yuletide-dinner with my workmates. The day after that we went to a fun Christmas concert (Baggalútur), and then out to dinner again.
On the Saturday we celebrated the birthday of Anna and two of her cousins (to be seen in a different post), and then on Sunday I could finally start to actually prepare for Christmas.
The following days were a whirlwind of working, gift shopping, and wrapping presents long into the night. Finally it was 23 December, at which point the tree went up, and got decorated. And somehow we all made it to Christmas. (12 images total)
Thursday 17 December 2015
Bjarki chillin’ with a book after gently waking up from anesthesia, after the doctor removed his adenoids (nefkirtlar). Shall we pile on the parental guilt by mentioning that he’s probably had a nasal infection for the better part of the last couple of years? Hmmm…
Thanksgiving 2015
[Photos from 28 November 2015, posted online 21 March 2016. The thaw helps with blogging apparently…]
No sooner had Finnur left for California, when some of the ex-Californians got together to celebrate Thanksgiving! Oh, and it also SNOWED a ton overnight! (20 images total, HERE ARE ALL THE PHOTOS)
Very thankful ex-Californians about to eat a lot of great food.
Bjarki Goes East, Hrefna Goes to a Concert
[Happenings of 24 July 2015, onlined 06 September 2015. Good thing nothing else is going on these days.]
We booked Bjarki a stay with his grandparents over the weekend to decrease our humans-per-area ratio a bit. The showering of unconditional love always does him good.
Meanwhile, I went out to dinner with Sigga (from CA), and then finished the evening by attending a jazz concert by the group 23/8, which is fronted by my old classmate Stina. They put on a great show of Björk songs, calling it Bjorkologi. (9 images total, 1 video)
Fresh from the library, these are the books Bjarki took with him to his grandparents’ summer house.
A ‘This Too Shall Pass’ Night
Warning: Discussion of stomach bugs, i.e. vomiting. This past night was of the ‘This Too Shall Pass‘-chanting variety. After Bjarki vomited at the dinner table, I put him to sleep in our bed, intending to follow him there shortly. After everybody had left, and Anna was in bed, I had a change of mind andRead more
New Year’s Eve
We spent the last day of the year 2011 in pretty standard fashion. We began by attending The Annual Dinner With Finnur’s Family (and a couple of their friends) at the lovely adobe of Finnur’s uncle and his wife. After eating far too much, and playing with fireworks, we hightailed it to Hrefna’s family where we hiked up to the hill shortly before midnight (also an annual tradition) and attempted to see the crazy amount of fireworks being fired up at the new year.
Finnur's family and friends at the annual family new year's eve dinner.