Monday Ice: The Xmas Police

The police in Blönduós send to all this week their Xmas wishes!

Monday Ice: Fa La La La...

Before the holidays season is over I thought I better get this one in now or it would have to wait till next year.  Seasons greetings to you all!

Stakir Jakar - Jolakveðja/Xmas Greetings 2013 from Thorvardur Arnason on Vimeo.

Hello 2013!

It is Sunday morning as I start writing this...although possibly not by the time I post it.  I have just come back from my walk with Perla, I love Sunday morning walks as the town is so quiet in winter, all the houses are dark behind their bright Christmas outfits (last day for the lights) and I can just make out the dark shapes of the mountains in the distance...I am really starting to appreciate this shadowy season...it is so beautiful, peaceful and serene.

I return to a very quiet home which has been all a bustle the last few weeks with family from Australia. My two sisters, Kerry with her partner Stephen and Donna with her daughter Bella were visiting for a collective span of 3 weeks over Christmas and it was fabulous just being around them again.

I don't think we have all actually been under the same roof for this long since we were teenagers, there was a lot of reminiscing, adoring my grandson Henry, general chit chat, catching up with Olga and Ross, more adoring of Henry, eating, adoring Henry again, drinking and of course adoring Henry.  

                                          Henry and Donna (or Donal as Henry would say)

                                                                 Henry and Bella

Henry and Kerry

Henry my 19month old grandson was the absolute centre of attention and he still asks for Bella my 15 year old niece and my sister Donal (Donna) who both fell head over heels in love with the little guy and he with them.

Christmas morning and Henry bowing after a 2 second solo on the drums...he was really lapping up the applause!

Henry's adorable parents Olga and Ross

This was my visiting families first white Christmas and it was a little touch and go there for a while that the snow would come.  On Christmas eve and day there was just a light dusting of snow but a couple of days later we were blessed with a little blizzard which did bring knee deep snow to town and they took the opportunity to wallow in it.

plenty of snow around Gamla Pósthúsið

Bella and Donna made snow angels 

and a snowman

plus Bella went tobogganing

while we all looked on and wished we were a bit younger!

The blizzard gave us the opportunity to stay indoors for a couple of days and have a creative play with a paste paper and a little coptic bookbinding workshop that my sisters were keen to do.

It was 2 fun filled afternoons down in the studio and they all went away with finished books with their own paste paper covers plus materials ready to stitch more in any quiet times they may have during their travels.

Paste paper ready to be used for book covers...unfortunately I did not get  pics of any of the finished books...but I promise you they looked great!

The weather was not all bad and we were able to do a little sight seeing around the place and we went out several times 

on a road to somewhere.

To Glaumbær on a foggy afternoon,

to Hólar

Hofsós,

Siglufjörður

Akureyri 

and Goðafoss.

Although not quite traveling together both sisters have gone on to Copenhagen and are currently in  Ireland,  Donna and Bella are staying with friends in Ireland and Kerry and Steve are traveling around the Irish country side but will catch up with each other again somewhere over there.

After a busy bustling few weeks I feel a sense of peace now it is over but also a tad subdued....missing everyone a little...I expect this and it is just something one needs to travel through.

I hope you all had a joyful Christmas

and I wish each and everyone of you only the very best for 2013, it will be a very good year!

It is now Friday and taken me 6 days to post this....I will try and be a better blogger in future.

Thanks to  Kerry and Bella who generously shared their photos with me.

Monday Ice: The Yule Lads

Gleðileg Jól, (Merry Christmas) to you all, it has been a great year and I am really looking forward to 2013.  I wish you all a safe and happy festive season, I hope you all make time to relax a little during the holidays and get to spend it in whatever way makes you happy!

I have been looking for a Christmasy Monday Ice film for today Christmas Eve and stumbled upon this great family made video based on Brian Pilkington's book The Yule Lads.  I particulary like Gryla the Yule Lads mother and the dog who stars as the Yule Cat.

Enjoy!

Christmas Memories

Well Christmas is well on its way and the 1st of  December here saw the lighting of the town Christmas tree, which happens to be right outside my front door...I refuse to put another up in the building as I already have the best one in town.

It was a bit of a task this year getting ready for the tree as after 3 major blizzards the town had mega snow and over those few weeks as the roads were cleared any empty spot around town became the receiving ground for the snow mountains.

The church square (my front garden) became the repository for the snow removed from the main road...initially there was hope that we would have some warmer days and the snow would have melted away by the 1st December but alas this was not the case and in the end 2 earth movers took a day to clear the spot...

in readiness for the tree.

In Australia as a child, I grew up with Christmas decor at a minimum, in my early years until I was about 12 we celebrated every Christmas at my grandmothers house and I cannot recall one Christmas decoration...except maybe a wreath on the front door...no Christmas tree, no lights (I need to check with my sisters if their memories of this time are similar to mine).  There were only a few christmassy rituals as I recall, on Christmas eve a pillowcase was tied to the end of our beds (in lieu of the Christmas stocking) for Santa to fill and we would leave a bottle of beer and biscuits  for him to eat and drink, the beer was always consumed but year after year the biscuits remained untouched. The only other tradition I remember was that we always had a hot lunch (even if it was 38°c) with a Christmas pudding which had threepences/sixpences hidden inside and the table set with Christmas bonbons (crackers).  After lunch us children were usually sent off to the beach with our new beach bags and towels which we seemed to get every year. We usually returned burned and blistered as sun protection was not on anyones radar back then.

The lighting of the Christmas tree celebrations in front of Gamla Pósthúsið

A few of the 13 Santas (Yule Lads) popped in for a quick visit.

Back in the 60's in Australia, Christmas was a fairly low key affair all round, at least in the country town were we were, I suppose our world view was fairly narrow then, with no television or internet...who knows maybe the next town had mega celebrations, I however, do not remember any other folks doing anything more christmassy than us.  Houses decorated with lights in Australia I think is a fairly recent phenomenon, possibly only since the onslaught of the internet.  When my children were young I did try and make Christmas a good memory for them and in the lead up together we created handmade decorations and always had a real tree of some description...even if it was a Gum tree branch.  I did also honour my Christmas memories and my children had the pillowcases at the end of the bed and no matter the weather I always opted for a hot Christmas lunch...I could never get into a cold meal...it never felt like christmas to me.   

Christmas here is pretty over the top, low key does not exist.  So for the second time in my life I have put lights in the windows (first time was last year) and I will put up a few Christmassy touches around the apartment, I have made my Christmas pudding and will do a bit more Christmas baking next week in preparation for the arrival of my sisters who will be here to celebrate a white Christmas and to see the New Year in.

Since moving into the old post house I have pretty much a birds eye view of the coming and goings around the town but the tables are now turned...a web cam was put up in the square to capture the festivities and Gamla Pósthúsið is in full view (this possibly will disappear at some stage but it is still there as I write this post).

 My sister in Australia captured a couple of screen shots of me walking my dog Perla.

Notice how dark it is for 10.30 in the morning, currently sunrise is around 11.20am and sunset around 3pm, over the Christmas and New Year holidays will be the shortest days of the season...so yay for all the Christmas lights around town.

Family Times, Xmas 2011

Apologies for this long and picture heavy post,  I am just trying to summarise the whirwind affair that was my Christmas with family.  It was so busy and it went so fast that I feel that it hardly happened...thank goodness for the blog as it makes me slow down and reflect on these special moments and thank goodness everyone left me photos as I took none...just too busy 'being' with them all.

The morning after Jesse and Michelle arrived we started the Christmas holiday season with some very sad news...my sister-inlaw Irma had passed away on the 21 Dec.

 

   Jesse set up a little shrine with candles and photos

I feel so incredibly fortunate to have spent a week with her here in Iceland in Sept.  Just after Irma returned to Perth from her Iceland and Italy trip in Oct she found out she had cancer, it was very aggressive and Irma died less than 3 months after diagnosis.  My children found it especially difficult and quite torn to not have been able to go to the funeral or to be with their father, nonno, nonna, aunts and uncles at this very sad time for the family. 

However with the aid of technology we chatted to them all on skype and fondly remembered over the holiday period the special, loving and giving life of Irma.  I think we all still had a fabulous Christmas and New Year and I am sure that is exactly what Irma would have wanted.

Besides family I got to meet Eva's partner John, what a lovely man he is, quiet, easy going and although an only child coped very admirably with the goings on of sibling revelry.

 Eva and John

And Jesse's girlfriend Michelle is a joy, very open and friendly young woman who constantly made me smile. 

 Michelle and Jesse

Also here and travelling with Dom my eldest son, is Lachlan, a next door neighbour childhood friend to them all and special mate to Ross since he was 8 or 9 years old. 

Plus visiting from Germany was the beautiful Anja,  they all met when she was a high school exchange student at  Ross' school in Perth.  Anja returned to Australia a few times and ended up living with Eva and Ross for over a year in Inglewood.

Anja (Henry's godmother) 

Henry perfected the art of crawling over the holidays

 

got into the holiday spirit

and bonded with his Aunty and Uncles.

 Eva told Ross that she was going to miss Henry far more than she would miss him!!!

 Dom allowing Henry to explore his musical genes.

Jesse and Henry having a fun playtime.

It really has just been a family affair, we did not really do any touristy stuff, we basically just hung out, chatting and spending precious time together. 

The weather here at this time of year tends to make going places difficult, some did get to go to Akureyri and Hofsós, however the road to Grettislaug was too snowed in for Ross' little car so they missed out on the hot springs but the Hofsos pool made up for it.

Jesse, Dom and Ross at the Hofsos pool

The boys did do a spot of fishing (no luck though)

         and a bit of jamming in Ross' basement

 

There were snowballs,  

snowmen

and snow angels

and of course let us not forget New Years Eve where they all got to nurture their pyromaniac side for the fireworks.

Huge bonfire on the beach

and fireworks at 9pm to get everyone in the mood.

Dom already in the mood with his firework booty and 

well and truly channeling his inner pyromaniac!

 In Australia it is against the law for private citizens to set off fireworks but here in Iceland over the Christmas and New Year period it is wholly sanctioned and everyone seems to set them off.

Jesse all gung ho and ready to set off his very first fireworks in the old post office carpark.

 It sort of exploded and sent us all back peddling,

 I must admit I am not a fan in such close proximity and would much prefer to watch from a distance.

On the stroke of midnight the town just explodes into a huge fireworks spectacular that continues pretty much for an hour or so as everyone sets off their own stash of fireworks.

 

It doesn't matter where you are there is sure to be something going off somewhere in the town.

View from the graveyard

Olga, Ross and Jesse

 

Olga and Anna

 

It has been so special to have all my children here for their very first white Christmas and hopefully over the years we get to spend more of these times together.    When I moved here I always knew I would be seeing them for Christmas 2011 but now I am unsure when the next next time will be, so it was very sad for me to say farewell.  I miss them all so much, however once the renovations are complete and the business up and running I will start to make plans for a return visit to Australia to catch up again.