Christmas @ 3a

We had a fabulous Icelandic style Christmas dinner with Perla, Guðlaugur and the kids - Einar, Emilía and Eva.
They live upstairs from us - making everything from dragging tables and chairs upstairs to taking tired kids home very easy.
Heres some pictures:

In a cottage

I think it might be only in Iceland where you pack up the car, drive an hour or two, unpack the car in some rented cottage, usually through the unions, relax for a day or two then repack the car and drive home. The whole thing is actually very exhausting, but leaves some good memory's.
We shared a cottage, or summer house, with my classmate, Geidre and her family on December 23, on night of Christmas. We cooked tons of food, ate far to much and relaxed. It was great fun and good exercise on the mind because of the languages they speak, we could only communicate with her husband in English and her in Icelandic making the constant switching between languages a good exercise for my mind who has been on holidays of late.
And what summer house would be complete without a hottub?
The boys showed the Canadian in them by eating snow and tossing snow will chilling in the hot pot

The best time of year

The Icelandic Santa's have started - although I guess not all parents are on the same page with this because they started a day earlier in some homes. Stefán is a little annoyed and wants to know why Santa was in Keflavík and not Ásbrú.

My exams are done and marks are coming in, 7.5 in Málfræði and 6.9 in Hjóðfræði - looking good :D

I got strep throat, spent half my day waiting to see a doctor and a small fortune in fees, so I am annoyed, but I needed the antibotics so I am happy to be recovering.

Leópold has some spots. Normally I wont worry to much except that I just found out that they do not immunize against measles in Iceland. So now Im a little stressed.

I´ve got the boys busy making Christmas cards for everyone, kinda a make-work project, and I am sorry to say that I missed the mail to Canada date - in order to arrive in time for Christmas - by 1 day, but you will get them in time for new years, unless they get lost in the mail.

And I miss my brother Tye, who is currently not speaking with me.

Saturday pictures

We went to Leópold play school yesterday. It was a special day for the whole family to go see what the babies have been doing. A kind of Open House, play school style.
We were also invited to decorate and eat as many ginger snaps (pepper cookies) as we could. Great fun.
After we went to the city do get a little running around done, and that was fun too, after 5 stores, I finally found one that was not sold out of ink for my printer.

'missing the light' by Leópold

'love with sparkles' by Leópold

'Finding the way' by Leópold

decorating cookies

hard at work

still being silly

Kasper thinks this school is way funner then his

in the mall - still happy with out having to put coins in

driving with out looking

getting ready to drive home

maybe its a little too dark with the sunglasses

going to try anyways

Kasper and Bergvín

Listening in

Tonight, in the grocery store, I overheard the most beautiful conversation, there were a group of American women grocery shopping for Thanksgiving dinner, dispite being in Iceland - there doing it away ways.
Admittedly, I was a little jealous.
Then when one women said to another, 'do you think one bag of corn is enough?' and the other said ' no, lets go with 2, you can never have too much corn' it took all my self restraint not to trow myself into the cart and demand to be invited for dinner, I would have even cook the corn - with butter of course!
Icelanders dont really get the corn thing too much and last year at Christmas, when everyone was over, I made a huge pot of corn, and nearly died trying to eat it myself because no one else touched it!
But just hearing them talk was so fun, the accent so familiar, the topic, I followed them around, listening and shopping for my own food,
they have no idea how fun it was for me.

Some lost pictures - yikes!

Im thinking my camera need some new batteries, these are seriously blurry, but probably better then nothing.

leó

leó

stefán

kasper

stefán

awesome cake by perla

another awesome cake by perla

eimíla

davíð and snúður, a.k.a. munch 2

leó

kasper, inga amma and davíð

kasper, my big 11 year old blowing out his candles :D

Time well spent

I dont seem to have much time these days but one thing I have kept up with, besides homework, is my volunteer time with the Salvation Army. It really is good for you, and fun really, to do things for others, as Lizzy pionted out aswell.
While it is not a holiday here, there is no thanksgiving in Iceland,thank doesn't mean we can not be thankful, and I am.

Small Notes

I have not written anything in a while and really dont know where to start. I know some pictures are in order and I have some serious plans for it in the coming weeks - so they are coming.

But since it is not possible to write about everything in any sort of detail I will give a few points here:

Leópold:

• No longer screams everyday when it is time to go to school, he actually likes it now
• Is currently obsesed with the Disney Cars movie
• Has basically tiolet trained himself, although he isnt very good at getting his pants off so he is pant less at home and just holds it all day at school. Scary really, But at least hes not in diapers right? It can only get better.
• Still hardly talks, and Im ok with that.
• In 'baby choir' on Thursdays, good stuff

Stefán:

• Doing great in his new school, Holtaskóli, which has recently been named best for Mathematics in Iceland!
• Practicing gymnatics and loving it.Hope to see you at the Christmas concert.
• Has become a professional at catching run away gerbils.
• Has been saving like mad for a new games consul. Maybe an xbox?
• Has a youtube chanel with videos he has taken with his camera we gave him for his birthday last month
• 
  

Kasper

• Also doing great in his new school.
• Turning 11 on Monday!
• Was in parkor, and might go back after Christmas.
• Has become insane about a game called minecraft and making videos on his own youtube channel

Davíð

• Doing great, ready for his journeyman ticket exam and already started on the maters ticket classes.
• Landed an amazing new job starting very soon - Ill writ more on that later.
• Super Dad and husband all around

Me

• Seems to be surviving school.
• Learning like mad for the finals.
• Was going to the gym, will go back next week, I promise :D
• Still volunteering one day a week, and its great
• Been a terrible friend, and feel bad for not keeping in touch better.
• Plan on doing better next month.

And if your every in doubt about how uncool I am, remember I spend my Saturday nights blogging as a break from grammar exercises.

Engineering Flowchart

I seriously plan to get back into the blogging now, and I promise more then spam.

with dearest memories

 

Kasper will miss you, and so will the rest of us.

Rest in peace, our champion runner.