[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)
[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)
[Photos taken 18 – 23 December 2019, posted online 06 June 2020. School has ended, now begin the endless camps!]
The bathroom finally became operational (yaaaaay!!!) but upstairs was a disaster area. With Emma’s room being almost totally empty of stuff after the big plumbing fiasco, I got the crazy idea to move her bed to a different wall, and rearrange the whole room. Just to up the stakes, Emma also requested one color for each wall, pretty please.
The only thing that saved this from being a total disaster was being able to take one day off and get a solid block of three full days to figure this out. (40-ish images total)
[Photos taken 17 December 2019, posted online 01 June 2020. It’s Whit-Monday, a public holiday, cloudy but calm outside, riots abroad.]
Out of pure stubbornness (my defining characteristic), I still take photos of the kids every year, for the annual photo-calendar. (The rule of the calendar is that every month has photos from the same month of the previous year.)
This year I was running out of time as usual, so a random Tuesday was my day of choice. It coincided with Emma’s first yule-tide music school recital, which was more stressful for her than I’d realized. Next year I’ll try to avoid such a basic scheduling mistake, but it all worked out ok in the end. (20-ish photos)
[Photos taken 08 – 16 December 2019, posted online 31 May 2020. It’s yet another three day weekend, I’m getting a bit too used to them now!]
December marched on. The Sun deserted us for longer and longer periods of time, but life went on. There were family gatherings, Bjarki performed at the his yule-tide recital, I got a new view of a gymnastics hall, and the weather put its mark on all our lives.
Thankfully, the bathroom renovations marched on, and we finally had an operational toilet and shower. (No sink though.) Feeling inspired, a storage “solution” was installed in the garage, to lessen the chaos there. (50-ish images total)
[Photos taken 01 – 07 December, posted online 30 May 2020. Social rules getting very relaxed, I began going to the office and gym this week. ]
December began with the bathroom rapidly taking shape, although a little bit behind schedule due to the late arrival of the shower bottom, and the discovery of the shower-head plumbing mistake.
The upcoming yule-season marked the days, with gift-buying, eating, and decorating. Birthday parties began lining up, Anna and myself attended a symphony orchestra concert, we had dinner with friends, and Bjarki participated in a fun gymnastics “meet” (everybody wins!). (40-ish images total)
[Photos taken 17 – 30 November 2019, posted online 23 May 2020. Social restrictions will be withdrawn a whole bunch on Monday, up to 200 people in one space = I can go back to the office.]
Finnur remained in California until almost the end of November, while I began trying to de-dust now that the worst of the bathroom renovations were behind us.
Other events were a football/soccer and gymnastics meet for Emma, endless practices of various forms, a new phone for me, yule-lights began creeping up, hair was cut, and a birthday attended. (70-ish images total!)
[Photos taken 04 – 16 November 2019, posted online 22 May 2020. The outside is getting greener by the day, with temps in the 16-18 C range this weekend!]
November was mostly a solo parenting month, with Finnur working in London at the very start of the month, and then transitioning to California for much of the remainder.
Meanwhile, the bathroom renovations continued, under the watchful eye of our architect/project manager. (60-ish images total)
[Photos taken 02 – 03 November 2019, posted online 17 May 2020. Lovely day weather-wise, there will be gardening!]
Finnur’s been to Liverpool quite a few times to watch Everton play at Goodison Park. He was therefore in charge of planning, and booked a two-hour long drive-around Beatles-tour for the two of us.
The guide picked us up at the hotel, and then drove us around to the childhood homes of each Beatles member, showing us old photos and telling stories from their youth. We also stopped at Penny Lane, Strawberry Field, and the church where an Eleanor Rigby is buried.
We ate dinner with other game-bound Icelanders, but the morning after, I traveled back to Iceland, where I arrived late to a birthday party, and then examined the bathroom-renovation progress. (60-ish images total)
[Photos from 01 November 2019, posted online 13 May 2020. The weather has switched to full-on spring (chilly though) and Covid cases are declining rapidly, but one or two are still popping every now and then.]
Many moons and what feels like several life-times ago, I bought tickets to see Tim Minchin perform live in Liverpool. (Yes, it was an excellent fall show-wise for the nerd in me!) The grand plan was to go see his show on a Friday, then attend an Everton home football game on the Saturday (my first!), and fly back home to the kiddos on Sunday morning.
As luck would have it, the game got moved to Sunday, so the plan got changed. I would still go home Sunday morning (and miss the game), but Finnur would attend the game with a few other Icelanders, and then travel to London to work at the London office for three days, with a cozy room and board at my dad’s and Shirley’s house.
