{"id":7060,"date":"2012-12-24T22:54:28","date_gmt":"2012-12-24T22:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/?p=7060"},"modified":"2013-01-02T21:32:27","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T21:32:27","slug":"christmas-eve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/christmas-eve\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Eve"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Written on 29 December 2012]<\/p>\n

Icelanders hold Christmas on Christmas Eve, i.e. the kids squirm the whole day, at 6 pm there’s a fancy dinner, and once that’s over (and all cleared and cleaned away) it’s PRESENT OPENING TIME!!<\/p>\n

Here are a few pictures<\/a> from the day.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The tree Anna and Finnur bought and decorated the day before almost floated on top of all the presents – and that was before mom and Bjarni brought their own.<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

\"Anna<\/a>

Anna and Bjarki whiled away the minutes by alternating between playing and asking us when they’d get to open presents. \u00a0Here they’ve constructed a car-jumping ramp, which they used to launch small cars into the air. \u00a0I kindly asked them to move it where the cars would land on a rug instead of the wooden floor so they moved the car-smashing operation into Anna’s room.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"I<\/a>

I tried my hand at a few housewife-y things like ironing a small table cloth, and napkins. Feeling charitable, I also ironed Finnur’s shirt, which he usually gets stuck with doing himself.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The kids licking whipped cream off the whippers, having just helped Finnur make the dessert.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The living room looking slightly more presentable than usual. I managed to stick the holiday cards we’d received up on the wall – except they kept falling down!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Finnur<\/a>

Finnur the Kitchen Hero.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bjarni<\/a>

Bjarni and (a slightly manic looking) Hrefna peeling potatoes.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Grandma<\/a>

Grandma \u00c1sd\u00eds and the kids lighting candles.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Finnur<\/a>

Finnur caramelizes the potatoes… not long until dinner starts now!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bjarni<\/a>

Bjarni by the unusually fancily set table. That table-cloth comes out exactly once per year. \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The kids got to open one present each at 6 pm…<\/p><\/div>\n

\"...<\/a>

… and there was much happiness. \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Dinner<\/a>

Dinner time! \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The view from the other end of the table – for completeness! \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Anna<\/a>

Anna posing by the tree between the main course and dessert. \u00a0She was only a ‘little’ bit excited.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a>

As is customary, we had Ris a la Mande for dessert, with a whole almond hidden in it somewhere.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bjarni<\/a>

Bjarni came really close to finding the almond, but Finnur was the one to spot it and got the prize, which was the Of Monsters and Men<\/a> CD called My Head is an Animal<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

The package opening commences – Bjarni tries on a new jacket. \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Anna<\/a>

Anna happy with some Monster High doll clothes.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Finnur<\/a>

Finnur reading directions for Bjarki.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bjarki<\/a>

Bjarki trying his new toy.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Bjarki<\/a>

Bjarki with a new hard hat and chain saw.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mess<\/a>

The living room getting slightly messy, even though we tried to stay on top of all the wrapping material.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"We<\/a>

We saved the big boxes for last, and shipped them straight upstairs!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"A<\/a>

A final family picture before mom and Bjarni took off, and we put the kids to bed.<\/p><\/div>\n

This year we decided to do a speedy present-opening, meaning more than one present was being opened at any given time (although not by the same person). \u00a0This was in response to the very painfully-slow progress the year before when it looked like we’d be at it until midnight. \u00a0As a result I didn’t write down who gave whom what, so you’ll have to forgive me for being slightly clueless, although I did try to pay attention.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, everybody was very happy with what they got, and there was much merriment. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Written on 29 December 2012]<\/p>\n

Icelanders hold Christmas on Christmas Eve, i.e. the kids squirm the whole day, at 6 pm there’s a fancy dinner, and once that’s over (and all cleared and cleaned away) it’s PRESENT OPENING TIME!!<\/p>\n

Here are a few pictures<\/a> from the day.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The tree Anna and Finnur bought and decorated the day before almost floated on top of all the presents – and that was before mom and Bjarni brought their own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-container col-md-12"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7060"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7138,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7060\/revisions\/7138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrefna.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}