Mental Space Opening Up
As of writing this, I’m one lecture and two homeworks away from being done teaching the ‘other course’ for a long while this semester. I’ve also finished gobbling up Merlin (mmmm… Meeeeerlin, also the internets are insane!) and as a result I have a wee bit of mental space opening up. To celebrate I’m goingRead more
Lotta’s Exhibition
Lotta, one of our good Icelandic friends who we met in California is a proper arty photographer, with impressive degrees to her name and everything! This January she and a good friend of hers co-held an exhibition called Echo here in Reykjavík, and she was kind enough to invite us to the opening. As it happened Finnur was busy, so we plonked the kids down with their grandparents (triple hooray for local grandparents!!) and went on our separate ways.
Looking over the parking lot I used by the harbor.
Iðunn Heiður Baptized
Newborns in Iceland are rarely given a name before they leave the birth-hospital, as is customary in the US. Instead, the newbie usually goes by all sorts nicknames while the parents try to suss out an appropriate name, and once they’re done there’s (usually) a baptism, or a naming party, where the kid’s name is ‘revealed’. Here are some pictures from the baptism of my newest niece, Iðunn Heiður Nökkvadóttir, daughter of Nökkvi and Jóhanna. 🙂
Jóhanna and Nökkvi with Iðunn Heiður, who slept through all of it! It should be noted that both parents were feeling a bit under the weather, but decided to go ahead with the party anyway since it had all been planned, etc. etc.
Back to Work
I have a million and two images to post from the final gasps of December, but first I’m finishing my mental vacation (aka ‘escape from reality’) in Merlin-land. Yes, at this point in time, I feel it is my duty to stand by my vow to finish watching all hereto produced episodes with the utmost haste,Read more
Happy New Year!! / Gleðilegt nýtt ár!! :)
Yeah, the title pretty much says it all! Happy New Year!! / Gleðilegt nýtt ár!! 🙂 Read more
A Whole-Day Birthday Celebration
These days it seems to be the ‘norm’ to host multiple birthday parties for one kid. In particular there tends to be one party for the classmates and another for the family and friends. Since we happen to have large families on both sides, we decided to split the partying up into three parts: 1) Finnur’s family at Finnur’s parents’ place on Christmas Day, 2) all the girl’s in Anna’s class at the ice-skating rink, and 3) Hrefna’s family and our friends. In a fit of insanity I organized 2) and 3) to be on the same day, but thankfully it all worked out in the end.
The girls singing Happy Birthday for Anna at the ice-rink.
While the kids are out…
… the adults go out to play! Yes, both kids got swept away on sleepovers earlier today. Anna headed to her classmate’s before lunch and will not be returning until tomorrow. So that Bjarki wouldn’t be bored to tears in the meantime, Finnur’s parents agreed to take him on for the same amount of time.Read more
More Family Feasting
As usual, the week between Christmas and the new year is full of fun feasts. On the Second day of Christmas, Arnar and Magnea invited the family over for delicious food and good company. Here are some pics. 🙂
Mmmm… lovely lovely foooood! 🙂
Anna Sólrún turns 8 years old/Christmas Day
Anna Sólrún is now EIGHT years old!! How time flies. 🙂 As is customary, we spent the day with Finnur’s family. We arrived around 14:30, and began by eating a chocolate cake in Anna’s honor. She then got to open some presents (Icelanders open the Christmas presents on Christmas Eve) much to her enjoyment. 🙂
After the ‘birthday-part’ of the day was over, the adults sat down to play whist while the kids watched some tv. After we’d played 12 rounds, it was time for Christmas Dinner, after which the whist-trophy was awarded to the top scorer, and some playing cards were given to the lowest scorer.
All in all it was a lovely Christmas Day, and to make the day even more lovely we had snowfall pretty much the whole day, making the view extra Christmassy. 🙂
Here are some photos from the day.
The standard-issue chocolate cake, with too many colorful smarties to be readable. It should say "Anna 8" 🙂
The (half) happy family. 🙂
Christmas!
Begin info dump: Icelanders celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. The celebrations begin at 6pm with a fancy meal, followed by the all-important opening of presents. End info dump.
Christmas (Eve)/Yule/Solstice arrived in a flurry of snow. The trickiest part of the day is keeping the kids sane, because, duh, PRESENTS!! We somehow managed to convince them to go outside, just as a blizzard descended, and
The kids out in the backyard as snow is beginning to fall.