Christmas Tree!

We spent Christmas 2010 in England, and therefore never bothered to buy a Christmas/Yule-tide/Solstice tree last year.  This year we were planning to cut down a tree in our own back-yard, but when the time came it was already dark out, the tree wasn’t that pretty, and we were feeling lazy.  End-result:  Finnur drove to the nearest tree-depot and bough a tree.

It is customary in Iceland to put the Christmas tree up on the evening before Christmas Eve, so that’s what we did.  As it happened, Bjarni and mom were delivering presents at the same time, so we got them to help out.

Anna and Bjarki walking aroud the decorated Christmas tree stand…

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Ný Nökkva -og Jóhönnudóttir! :)

On 16 December 2011, my brother Nökkvi and his spouse Jóhanna welcomed their second child!  She was in a hurry to get here, and measured 53 cm (20.9 inches) long and weighed 4 kg (16 ‘merkur’, 8.8 lbs) on arrival.  All were healthy and happy and they went home later that day. Since we wereRead more

Biking in the Snow

After biking pretty much daily to work in the balmy fall weather, frost and snow hit us like a brick in the latter part of November and nobody has stepped forward to remove the brick yet.  I was all ready to keep biking, but for some reason my schedule became such that I’ve been car-riddenRead more

A Thanksgiving-Feast with Ex-Californians

While living in California for ten years, we were incredibly fortunate to meet and befriend other Icelanders who lived in our area.  Many of those ended up moving back to Iceland (as one does!) and we still keep in touch with many of them.  Out of the ‘large’ group of friends, a small ‘core’ emerged, and this group meets up once per year to celebrate Thanksgiving – because who else would give a damn in Iceland?! 🙂  (This year the feast got delayed a bit, so it almost merged with Yule-tide – hence the decorating of ginger bread houses! 🙂 )

Our hosts this year were Soffía and Ágúst in their newly built house, and just like last year, Finnur missed the party – this time because he himself was in California on a work-trip!

Happy chit-chatting by the kitchen-island. 🙂

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Daycare Christmas Ball

Bjarki’s daycare center held its annual Christmas Ball in the main-hall of Anna’s school.  There was walking-around-a-fake-Christmas-tree-while-singing, a Santa-Clause showed up and regaled the kids with stories, before going on a sit-with-children-spree.  All in all it went really well, and a good time was had by all! 🙂

Anna and her best friend at the ball doing a song-move.

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Proper Snow

As usual, I found myself moaning about the weather being so nice for so long this November.  Mostly it was my nerves about ‘climate change’ speaking.  And then the snow hit and I felt a bit better.  But as of today (16 Jan 2012) it’s still here and my ‘climate change’ nerves are starting toRead more

Cold

We’ve finally entered a cold snap and, it’s freezing!  Literally!  Unfortunately I’m also carrying around the other kind of cold, the nasal-drippy, raspy-voice kind of cold.  I’m hoping yesterday evening was the worst of it though, and that it will be getting better from now on.  It does feel like both nostrils are equally cloggedRead more

Cousins and Ginger Bread

Grandma Anna sent this picture of Anna cutting out ginger-bread cookies with two of her cousins (children of Finnur’s sisters).  Is is just me or does Anna look extra grown-up in this picture?!Read more

Cause and Effect

Finnur took off for California yesterday on a work-visit.  Before he had even touched down in the US, my nose started dripping and a lurking sore-throat decided it was time to come out of hiding.  Thus ended my streak of mostly good health this fall, in contrast to last fall where I think I lostRead more