Dagbók Hrefnu og Finns

46th Birthday, Jamie & Júníus, Druk-Play & Dinners

2023-03-01Birthday, Concert, Finnur's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 17 March 2023, posted online 26 November 2023. Long time since last post, I got swallowed up prepping for Christmas, lots of computer projects. Not long now until I’m a year behind, sigh!]

It was my turn to celebrate a birthday, as I crossed the 46th annual age-increase-threshold, and two days later we had a 23rd wedding anniversary.

The month included a literal avalance of events and outings. We attended a play, went out to dinner, and visited the summer house. I did a photo-shoot, a hike in the freezing-cold, attended not one but two (!) concerts in Harpa, hosted a sewing club, kept going to the gym, hunting for furniture, arranging hair-cuts, and generally trying to keep my head afloat in the water.

Wednesday 01 March 2023

The birthday girl (me!) with my birthday shake!

Emma’s 10th Birthday Parties, Gymming & Summer Housing

2023-02-11Emma, Finnur's family, Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 11 – 28 February 2023, posted online 14 October 2023. There’s a bit of white stuff on the ground, it won’t last.]

We had no sooner arrived from Tenerife than it was time to prep for Emma’s 10th birthday! She ended up getting three parties, one with each family-wing, and one with her classmates.

As February went on, I took an annoying number of selfies in the gym, the weather did all sorts of things, yule lights came down as the daylight stayed for longer, the yard got a bit of attention, and we managed to make sure the summer house was ok. Then February was over!

Emma with her birthday cake #2, made by Anna.

Tenerife Couples-Trip: Routines & Departure

2023-02-06Tenerife Standard

[Photos taken 06 – 09 February 2023, posted online 07 October 2023. Woke up to a frozen world. It won’t last, but it was a nice glimpse into the future.]

Two of our Tenerife travel buddies decided to join us at the very last minute, knowing they couldn’t stay the whole week. We said goodbye to them around lunch time, and then ventured along the beach a bit.

The following days were very lounge-y, and then it was also time for us to leave!

Monday 06 February 2023

It’s amazing how quickly habits form. Our fancy-pants platinum status meant we had access to a smaller breakfast buffet area, with outdoor seating that overlooked the sea. This quickly became “our table”.

Tenerife Couples-Trip: Jogs & Random Weather

2023-02-04Tenerife Standard

[Photos taken 04 – XX February 2023, posted online 01 October 2023. How is October already?!?!]

After the big e-biking trip it was time to chill, or so I hoped. As it turned out, my nervous system was wired and jittery, so I tried calming it by going out on a jog. There was also a bit of shopping.

The weather was a bit tumultuous, swinging between blue skies, and a bit of rain even!

Saturday 04 February 2023

There’s a meme of sending Toe-pics from Tenerife, after the Governor of the Central bank blamed some bad economic news on Icelanders traveling abroad, siting all the “Toe-pics from Tene” on social media. On this day, we’d been too late to book Bali-beds the day before, so we had to “settle” for regular sun-beds by the platinum roof-top pool.

Tenerife Couples-Trip: Arrival & Masca Valley

2023-02-02Tenerife Standard

[Photos taken 02 – 03 February 2023, posted online 30 September 2023. Warm fall this time around, wondering when a storm will tear the pretty leaves off the trees.]

After the successful ladies-only trip to Tenerife in November of 2021, we decided to repeat the trip, but this time invite the lads along.

Since we were looking for peace and quiet, we found a good Black Friday deal at an adults-only hotel, granting us “platinum” status, meaning we had access to a nicer breakfast area, a roof-top pool, and happy hour.

We left now formally-adult Anna (19 years old!) in charge of her siblings, which I will admit to feeling slightly guilty about, but it all worked out.

On our second day, three of us went and e-biked 32 km, visiting Masca Valley. It was a lot of fun!

Thursday 02 February 2023

Cross-Country Ski Lessons, Socials & Gymming

2023-01-14Finnur's family, Friends, Us Standard

[Photos taken 14 January – 01 February 2023, posted online 16 September 2023. Low pressure area spreading rain and wind this weekend.]

I managed to squeeze myself into beginner’s cross-country-skiing lessons on short notice (somebody dropped out). Three of the lessons happened on time, before the weather turned, and I missed the later two when the finally happened.

Aside from that, we attended a fun sewing-club new-year’s-party, there was baking, gymming, more gymming, a date night, a birthday cafe, a minor eye operation, and a trip to the summer house, among other things. There was also snow, rain, wind, aka the usual.

Saturday 14 January 2023

First cross-country-skiing group-lesson time, the calm before the action!

Lake-Skiing, Late-Yuling, Iliza-Seeing & Gymming

2023-01-07Finnur's family, Hrefna's family, Us Standard

[Photos taken 07 – 13 January 2023, posted online 09 September 2023. Fall is in the air, it’s getting wetter and chillier.]

My social media got filled with people on cross-country skis in glorious weather, so I gathered up my courage Saturday morning, found the skis I’d bought the previous season, and headed out to a nearby lake, where a group of people were maintaining tracks. I found out that I was about the slowest person there, but I still made it around the 4.5 km around lake, phew!

We went on to finalizing Yule two-days late, with tea, yule-tree-disposal, and the breaking of the ginger bread house. In the following week, I got myself a new covid shot, we went to see Iliza perform, and I kept visiting the gym!

Saturday 07 January 2023

Selfie while standing on a (rapidly thawing) frozen lake. — On Hafravatn!

Downtown-ing, Snow-pushing & Socializing

2023-01-01Us Standard

[Photos taken 01 – 06 January 2023, posted online 03 September 2023. The first storm of the fall came this Friday, bringing an abrupt stop to the lovely weather of July & August.]

I spent the first day of 2023 scouring the internet for a café that was open in the capital area. I found one downtown, and that’s where I spent most of the day.

The following days I kept a close eye and shovel on the public parking spot opposite our house, gym-routines restarted, the ginger-bread came close to demolition, and we had dinners with friends.

Sunday 01 January 2023

By the massive downtown yule-cat, swiping at unsuspecting tourists!

Goodbye 2022, Hello 2023!

2022-12-31Finnur's family, New Year's Eve, Us Standard

[Photos taken 31 December 2022 – 01 January 2023, posted online 3 August 2023. The weather is possibly changing… it’s been about the same for a month, hardly a drop from the sky, and pretty warm.]

This time around, the annual New Year’s Eve potluck party in Finnur’s family was hosted by his youngest sister and family. They’ve recently moved into a much bigger house, and it so happened that the town’s bonfire would be essentially in their backyard!

Saturday 31 December 2022

Happy 2023! The annual tradition of starlight-writing lives on…

2022 Yule, Anna’s 19th Birthday & Ginger-Bread

2022-12-24Christmas, Us Standard

[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…