New Years Eve

It is now 17:17 on New Years Eve, Bob is down stairs getting dinner ready, Sólveig Lilja is asleep downstairs and Kristín Lára is asleep up here and I'm just doing this! Next on the agenda is to have a shower, both I and the girls, then have dinner and then later on tonight, go out to see the bonfire and fireworks. Girls should be fine for that, night owls that they have become and having nice naps in the afernoon.

One can hear shots all over the place, people jump starting with their fireworks. Pretty stupid when it's still daylight (which it's not anymore but they've been shooting all day!). The weather is nice so it should be cool to walk up to the bonfire. It's probably a 10 minutes with these two, less than 5 if it was just the two of us.

Well, happy New Year everyone. Talk to you later.

Pizza

So we had pizza for dinner! And that's how it looked like.

Watch out Nigella

Sólveig Lilja got to come down to watch some TV last night as she did the night before. This time she just watched what we were watching, first ER and then Nigella Lawson's Christmas cooking show. She made all kinds of sauces, fillings, deserts......... and the turkey of course, with a lot of sugar, cream and butter, and then she sat down with her family to have dinner. Everything she made looked very pretty and good. Then after the credits - and I thought the show was over - we saw her come down for a little snack. She took a huge slice of bread, put all sorts of things on it, bread sauce, cranberry sauce and whatever, then two big slices of turkey and then another huge slice of bread on top and started woofing that down and then we heard; "Oh for heaven's sake!" from the three year old! How wonderful and how appropriate.

My parents came by yesterday afternoon after I finished work. They brought us their Christmas gifts, warm woolen socks for the girls, a new toboggan for Sólveig Lilja (which we had asked for), shirt and tie for Bob and a very nice top for me. They stayed for coffee and a little chat but then had to go since they had yet to feed the sheep. The toboggan is too small for Sólveig Lilja so we will take it back and see if we can find a bigger one. What I would like is a proper size one but with a little seat to support her and possibly even a belt to tie her down with! I just wonder if there is such a thing.

Rocking horse

We got a rocking horse for the girls and it didn't take long for Sólveig Lilja to mount it. But Kristín Lára was more cautious, she gave him hugs and cuddles and climbed up on the wood but that was all. Yesterday Bob saw that she was ready to try some more and put her on it and there she was, cuddling him and rocking and loving every minute of it. In case you notice the stains on her shirt, it's chocolate. She'd been eating some of that before :)

Watching TV on boxing day

We sat down yesterday to watch some TV. The girls snuggled down right next to me - or on top of me in Kristín Lára's case - and Bob took a few pictures and here are two of them.

Going to bed?

On Christmas Day when the girls were supposed to be going to bed I took this picture of them. Doesn't seem like they are going to sleep, does it?

Happy Christmas

This Christmas Day is probably the best Christmas Day I've ever had. So relaxed, calm, happy and balanced. We got up late - or early according to Bob. Got dressed, brushed our teeth, had breakfast. Sólveig Lilja had yoghurt, Kristín Lára cherios and and egg, Bob and I had eggs. Then we watched a bit of cartoons and then we went out to the deck. I pulled down the lights that the snow ruined for me and rearranged the ones I replaced them with. The girls played, Sólveig Lilja drove her tricycle around and round and Kristín Lára did the same with her little car. Bob puffed on his pipe. It was a bit windy so it soon got cold but we stayed out there for a while all the same. When we came in Bob made cocoa for the girls which Sólveig Lilja didn't drink - she thought it was too warm - but Kristín Lára drank a lot of! Then we had lunch, Kristín Lára had her nap, we figured out how to record to the new VHS/DVD thingy and then recorded some Tom & Jerry shows. Then we dressed up for dinner, lovely chicken and veggies a la Bob. Watched a bit more Tom & Jerry before I took the girls up to get them ready for bed. Red them a little story and they are now in bed. Just a quiet, calm Christmas Day for the Pells' family.

Bob and I tried out that ram game that we got from my uncle Gúmbi. Just like an ordinary deck of cards but with pictures of different rams on (real ones) with their qualities. You win cards by picking a better category of qualities and the goal of the game is to collect all the cards. Bob beat me once and the second time we ran out of time really because this thing can take time! And it's quite a lot of fun.

And to all of you who happen to read this - if any; have a very happy Christmas.

Jump start

We decided to jumpstart a bit and unboxed one of the Christmas presents. We knew what it was and we were going to use it during Christmas Eve dinner so we just decided to unbox it and put it together. It was a new chair for Kristín Lára and she seems to be pretty happy with it.

We decided (or I did) to stay at home this Christmas and not go to the farm and I think we're going to have good Christmas Eve together just our little family. If it wasn't for the Christmas lights, it wouldn't look much like Christmas because all the snow is gone!

For those of you who don't know, we celebrate Christmas Eve in Iceland. Have nice dinner at 6 o'clock and then open the presents. We wrapped the rest of the presents last night and put them under the tree and the girls have had to touch a little bit but been amazingly good though.

Kertasníkir

Þrettándi var Kertasníkir,
- þá var tíðin köld,
ef ekki kom hann síðastur
á aðfangadagskvöld.

Hann elti litlu börnin,
sem brostu, glöð og fín,
og trítluðu um bæinn
með tólgarkertin sín.

Thirteenth was Candle Beggar,
- The weather would be cold,
if he was not the last one
on the day of Yule Eve.

He followed the little children,
who smiled, happy and gay,
and tripped around the house
with their candles.

Kertasníkir is the last on of the Yuletide Lads to come and give children presents in their shoe in the window. I imagine that not all children will understand the empty window tomorrow morning.

Kjetkrókur

Ketkrókur, sá tólfti,
kunni á ýmsu lag. -
Hann þrammaði í sveitina
á Þorláksmessudag.

Hann krækti sér í tutlu,
þegar kostur var á.
En stundum reyndist stuttur
stauturinn hans þá.

Meat Hooker, the twelfth one,
Knew a thing or two. -
He marched into the country
On St. Thorlak's Day.

He hooked a bit of meat
Whenever he could.
But often a little short
was at times his staff.

Good night

This is how the girls sleep right now. How ladylike the little one is! She sure has funny ways of sleeping, well, they both do.

Gáttaþefur

Ellefti var Gáttaþefur,
- aldrei fékk sá kvef,
og hafði þó svo hlálegt
og heljarstórt nef.

Hann ilm af laufabrauði
upp á heiðar fann,
og léttur, eins og reykur,
á lyktina rann.

Eleventh was Doorway Sniffer
- who never had a cold,
even though he had a funny
and enormous nose.

The scent of Leaf Bread
he smelled in the hills,
and lightly, like the smoke,
he followed that scent.

I hate this storm

I really do. It is now 6:30 and I haven't slept much since 4 o'clock. I've been listening (couldn't avoid it!) to the wind, wondering if it's going to blow away the pieces of wood out on the deck (what is left of the fence to put up), wondering how I'm going to get Sólveig Lilja to playschool, things like that. I am now sitting in the study which is in the part of the house that doesn't face the wind and it fells like the storm is going down but I'm not sure if that is the case. Sólveig Lilja came into the bedroom to us about an hour ago, with the book that today's Yuletide lad left her. She's now snuggled down with her father but soon it will be time to wake her up to get ready for playschool.

A couple of landslides closed the road to the farm yesterday and the day before. The national road company cleared away the first one but that night, another one happened and blocked the road again and they cleared that yesterday. Got me a bit worried about my parents and the rest of them on the farm, although I've always believed that the buildings there were in no danger from avalances or landslides. The phoneline came apart and it hasn't been fixed yet and our lovely phone company says it could take 5 days to fix that! It's a private company now and they don't seem to care much about those poor buggers living in "remote" locations. Although the farm isn't that far away, it's just not enough people there for them to get high enough on their priority list.

Gluggagægir

Tíundi var Gluggagægir,
grályndur mann,
sem laumaðist á skjáinn
og leit inn um hann.

Ef eitthvað var þar inni
álitlegt að sjá,
hann oftast nær seinna
í það reyndi að ná.

Tenth was Window Peeper
a grumpy lad,
who sneaked to the window
and looked through it.

If anything was inside
nice to look at,
he usually later
tried to get that.

Kristín Lára

Kristín Lára likes to stay awake until we (her parents) go to bed, whenever that is. Last night she had taken off her pj-trousers and got her arm out through the neck of her shirt! This was just after 22:30 I think.

Cookies

I was baking yesterday, this is the result. They are "diet-friendly" and they are good.

Bjúgnakrækir

Níundi var Bjúgnakrækir,
brögðóttur og snar.
Hann hentist upp í rjáfrin
og hnuplaði þar.

Á eldhúsbita sat hann
í sóti og reyk
og át þar hangið bjúga,
sem engan sveik.

Ninth was Sausage Snatcher
Artful and quick.
He hied up to the rafters
And snatched a little there.

On a kitchen beam he sat
In smoke and soot
And ate a smoked sausage,
That was very good.

Down again

Finally, a few more grams down. Only 400 but that's still 400 down and not up. This was the last meeting/weighing until January 9th and hopefully I'll have got rid of over 30 kilos then. January 10th it will be one year since I started this diet.

Skyrgámur

Skyrgámur, sá áttundi,
var skelfilegt naut.
Hann hlemminn o'n af sánum
með hnefanum braut.

Svo hámaði hann í sig
og yfir matnum gein,
unz stóð hann á blístri
og stundi og hrein.

Skyr Gobbler, the eighth one,
Was a terrible bull.
The lid off the skyr tub
With his fist he smashed.

Then he gobbled up
As much as he could,
Till he was close to bursting
And moaned and grunted.

Storm

I can't sleep because of the weather. Storm. I've been awake for about an hour and I decided rather than staying in bed, tossing and turning, listening to the storm blow things around, I'd come out here and surf the internet a bit. I hate this kind of weather, Bob loves it. I keep wondering what is going to be blown away, things of ours or whatever, and I keep thinking, how is it going to be driving to work and then to my fat fighters, am I taking Sólveig Lilja to school (don't think so right now) and things like that. Worry to much I guess. I also wonder how Skyrgámur is doing, he's on his way putting things in little kids' shoes tonight. Wonder if he's been here to see my girls.

I picked up the girls' Christmas present from the post office yesterday. Came there around half four and it was almost 5 o'clock when I came back to the car! Waited there in line for almost half a hour! A lot of people were sending stuff away as it is almost Christmas. The girls are probably going to fight over that thing we got....

Concert

I went to a concert with my parents on Friday night. It was sponsored by our bank, Sparisjóður Norðlendinga and the artists were Stúlknakór Akureyrar (Akureyri church's girls' choir), Karlakór Eyjafjarðar (Eyjafjörður men's choir) and Regína Ósk, who is one of the best female singers in the country. She should have sung the Icelandic entry in Eurovision in Greece last May instead of that other thing that went, her song was the best and her performance was the best by a mile. But people voted for someone else to go and we have to live with that mistake.

But back to the concert. It was great. They sang Christmas songs, first the girls, then the men and then Regína Ósk and then all of them together. I enjoyed myself a lot. I bought Regína Ósk's CD after the concert and she signed it for me and it's not a bad CD.

Hurðaskellir

Sjöundi var Hurðaskellir,
- sá var nokkuð klúr,
ef fólkið vildi í rökkrinu
fá sér væran dúr.

Hann var ekki sérlega
hnugginn yfir því,
þó harkalega marraði
hjörunum í.

Seventh was Door Slammer,
- He was a little brash.
When people in the dark
Wanted to nap.

He was not one bit
Sorry for that,
If loud, creaking noises
Came from the hinges.

Askasleikir

Sá sjötti, Askasleikir,
var alveg dæmalaus. -
Hann fram undan rúmunum
rak sinn ljóta haus.

Þegar fólkið setti askana
fyrir kött og hund,
hann slunginn var að ná þeim
og sleikja á ýmsa lund.

The sixth, Bowl Licker,
Was without a peer. -
From under the beds, he
Pushed his ugly head.

When the bowls were placed
In front of cat and dog,
He cunningly snatched them
And licked till he was full.

Pottaskefill

Sá fimmti, Pottaskefill,
var skrítið kuldastrá.
- Þegar börnin fengu skófir
hann barði dyrnar á.

Þau ruku' upp, til að gá að
hvort gestur væri á ferð.
Þá flýtti 'ann sér að pottinum
og fékk sér góðan verð.

The fifth, Pot Licker,
Was a weird cool lad.
As the children received scrapings,
He knocked at the door.

They rushed off to see
If a guest was dropping in.
Then he hurried to the pot,
And had a filling meal.

It's cold here today, grrrrrr!

Þvörusleikir

Sá fjórði, Þvörusleikir,
var svakalega mjór.
Og ósköp varð hann glaður,
þegar eldabuskan fór.

Þá þaut hann eins og elding
og þvöruna greip,
og hélt með báðum höndum,
því hún var stundum sleip.

And English:
The fourth, Pot-Scraper Licker,
Was a very skinny lad.
And he was very happy,
When the cook went away.

He ran like lightning
And grabbed the pot-scraper,
Held it fast with both hands,
As it was sometimes slippery.

Stúfur

Stúfur hét sá þriðji,
stubburinn sá.
Hann krækti sér í pönnu,
þegar kostur var á.

Hann hljóp með hana í burtu
og hirti agnirnar,
sem stundum brunnu fastar
við barminn hér og þar.

And in English:
Itty Bitty was the third,
That short fellow.
He borrowed a pan,
When he could do so.

He ran away with it
And picked and ate the food-bits
That sometimes stick
To a pan here and there.

And no, I don't have this one either. And here is where I get these translations from.

Giljagaur

Giljagaur var annar,
með gráa hausinn sinn.
- Hann skreið ofan úr gili
og skauzt í fjósið inn.

Hann faldi sig í básunum
og froðunni stal,
meðan fjósakonan átti
við fjósamanninn tal.

And in English:
Gully Imp was the second,
With his grey old head.
He crept down from the mountain,
and into the cow shed.

He hid in the stables
- And stole the froth,
While the milkmaid chatted
Up the stable boy.

I am collecting these guys as the on in the Stekkjastaur entry, and I have all but three and one of these three is Giljagaur.

A little beauty

Look at this! What in the world is she thinking there?

Mrs Scale is still saying the same thing, the third week in a row.

Stekkjastaur

Stekkjastaur kom fyrstur,
stinnur eins og tré.
Hann laumaðist í fjárhúsin
og lék á bóndans fé.

Hann vildi sjúga ærnar,
- þá var þeim ekki um sel,
því greyið hafði staurfætur,
- það gekk nú ekki vel.

A translation to English that I found somewhere:
Gimpy was the first,
Stiff like a tree.
He snuck into the stables,
And fooled the farmer's sheep.

He wanted to suck milk from them,
- They did not care for that,
And because he had peg-legs
- It did not go too well.

The Icelandic Yuletide Lads are 13. The first one of them came down from the mountains this morning. Kids all over Iceland put a shoe out in their window and he gave them something in it - hopefully. When Father saw what he had put in his daughters' shoes last night (they had already been here when the Parents went to bed), he thought he had been rather cheap. But Mother thought it was great, she had been hoping that the Yuletide Lads would know that they girls needed new bibs. I know that he had some problems with Sólveig Lilja though. He couldn't find her shoe. He searched and searched and finally found it on her foot!

Here are links to more information on these guys:
Christmas/Yule in Iceland
Christmas Lads at the national Museum of Iceland
The Icelandic Yuletide Lads
Yuletide Lads at the National Museum
The Yuletide Lads and their parents

Grades

The grades have been published. I passed both courses, math with 55% and the law course with 60%. Taken the amount of time spent on each course, the law course really was cheap credits as people had told me. It is so good to have this done and now I have "only" 6 more courses, 18 more credits to go for my BSc.

A little pilot

This is a little pilot in the making!

Mess, mess, mess!

Horrible mess this new bathroom floor is causing. And we still have a lot of work to do before it stops being a mess. The plumber came yesterday and put down the pipes and today we covered them and the next step is to put down the tiles. And that is going to make a mess as well.

Still no grades, the math teacher sent us a message saying he will upload the grades on Monday.

Operation "Bathroom floor"

It's coming along ok, yesterday they sawed the lines in the floor so the next step is for the plumber to put down the pipes. And this is how it looks like right now.

Chip, chip

Chip, chip, the sounds of a persons dream dying, fading into dispare. For what is a chip, but a slice of life that has fallen from grace and the tile intact is no more. To be sucked up into the heavens that is the vacum cleaner, a metaphore for Death himself. A bang of the hammer sends the tile into bits, bits thrown and wanted no more. Bits that had as a whole served the house without question, and yet in the blink of an eye its purpose is no more. For in shards it receives no reward, just the trashcan that awaits us all in either coffin or can. Lighting slivers of tile litter the floor. Years have passed, feet have crossed, water, tears have fallen in to the history of it making. But, no more. Now it is time for it to return to the land and await its next incarnation. Waiting in the next room to replace the old, the new. The old tile hangs on with grim determination. A chip weakens the whole. The new waits. and yet the old now waits only the hammer to fall. To destroy its whole and to pass it unto the history of the land that is called out of date, out of fashion. A though, perhaps. Empathy, said the tile. Chip, said the hammer and together they joined and parted.

(RLP)

Status quo

No change from last week - which is an achievement in itself since I "cheated" a bit this week. No weight lost, no weight gained. Although I prefer not talking about loosing weight but getting rid of it so this week, I didn't get rid of any. Hopefully next week I'll do better, I'll do my best.

No news from the teachers yet either, no grades. But it must be getting closer since on Friday it will be 10 working days since the math test and 10 working days how long the teachers have to grade us.

Pictures

We had our Christmas card pictures taken today. Some turned out very good, some less good. Here's one for you. The girls behaved pretty well but they were getting very tired. Sólveig Lilja and I went to a little Christmas gathering (dancing around the Christmas tree and things like that) today and then we went shopping so she was tired. And then she came out to the deck with me when I was putting lights on the fence. It actually looks very good now. We have also put lights in the windows, Sólveig Lilja got a father Christmas figure, Kristín Lára got an angel. The study got a snowman and the hobbyroom got a Christmas tree.

No news on test results yet, I guess they will take their allowed 10 working days to mark them!

Comfy cat

Laufabrauð

Mother and girls went to the farm today to make "laufabrauð" ("laufa" = leaf; "brauð" = bread). It's an Icelandic tradition before Christmas. Bob thinks this tastes like paper actually.