Whew, half-way through the holidays (yes, only half way, we still have the New Years Eve stuffing our stomachs to do). Christmas came as usual, and nothing was finished as usual... But after having survived years of having exams either before or after christmas every year, and cramming all the Christmas preparations on the day before, still managing to have a peaceful time when the moment came, I no longer suffer from holiday stress.

This year I had a wonderful relaxing time, getting some of the home-made presents ready on time (the last one was packed 2 hours before dinner), the others bought without guilt. We had a wonderful meal of roast turkey w. all the trimmings, mother in-law came to enjoy dinner with us. The biggest thing at christmas for anyone who has children is experiencing their joy and excitement. My son was very well behaved as always, we even persuaded him to have dessert with us (this did not work the last couple of times, after he was old enough to associate the unpacking of presents with dinner being over). He was very surprised on the morning of dec. 24th (the evening of which is the main celebration here in Iceland, w. opening of presents after dinner) to find a huge package under the tree that had not been there the night before. This was the present from mom and dad, a sleigh w. a stearing wheel, the no 1 wish, even though we have not had snow this winter yet, not even in the north part of the country.

I got some nice presents, only one book though (The Hobbit, by Tolkien to complete my Tolkien collection in icelandic), a couple of sweaters, a mobile phone and some joint presents with hubby, including a soda stream drinks maker and a frying pan (I guess people see us as gourmets or something...) and a bottle of aromatic massage oil. Oh and from my little sister, a toothbrush holder and a couple of cute santa christmas ornaments. All in all a pretty good christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Which Ultimate Beautiful Woman are You?
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In sickness...
I am sick as a dog today. Went out on the raz last night with Íris and Herdís, Stína was sick and Erna stood us up, shame on her! It was a lot of fun, and no I´m not sick ´cause I drank too much, I didn´t have a chance too. We were talking and having fun and after a couple of hours I started getting stomach cramps. I ignored them for a while, but at half past 12 I also felt nauseous and dizzy. I felt a strong urge to go to the bathroom, but to my horror they were all occupied! I hurried to say goodbye to the girls and got out of the smoke. Across the street there was a sleazy, half-empty bar. I hurried in and found the bathrooms vacant. After that I ran out and was fortunate enough to find a taxi right away to take me home, where I continued to expel vomit and diarrhea throughout the night. Today I feel horrible, and very sorry for myself. The vomiting has stopped, and I´m feeling a little bit better in the intestines, but still dizzy and nauseous, and very very tired as I hardly slept a wink all night. To top it off my little boy got sick too so we can feel bad together. He seems to be a little bit better off than me though, he hasn´t puked yet, at least.

The yuletide lads have brought him a Harry Potter outfit, piece by piece in his little shoe in the window. This morning he prodly wore the whole assemble, cape, glasses and magic wand. He looked so cute! Must be the most beautiful child in the whole wide world...

My wonderful computer
... just got back from the dealers and is now sporting the brand new mac os x system. I love it! I have no idea how to work it yet, but it only took me ten minutes to get hooked up to the internet, so how hard can it be? Macs are so cool, PC´s always look gray and dull. The new mac´s at the store looked so cool, like some fantasy space equipment from MIB V or something. Bill Gates eat my shorts! (he should be so lucky!) I have a PowerBook, but unfortunately an older version, not the titanium 1" thick cool new one my dad and my older brother have. Have to save money to buy me new cool computer..... I have never ever gotten a virus on my computer, I don´t think they make those for mac´s, hahahahahaha I laugh when I get virus warnings by mail from the PC suckers... Yupp, as you may have guessed by now I´m one of those mac fanatics, you will never convert me you hear!

""Which cocktail are you?""
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courtesy of Stína

Christmas

Christmas is around the corner, I am planning to make most of the presents myself this year, as I may have mentioned earlier. I have to send some of them overseas, so I better get sewing then. I finished the one for mum yesterday, making one for her hubby and my little sister tomorrow, must send them asap as they all live in Denmark. My aunt in California will hopefully get hers before christmas, am shipping it off tomorrow... After all the years of being a student and taking exams around christmas time, this year was supposed to be more relaxed, am so not getting there. I think I´m so used to the spirit of Christmas arriving on december 22nd that it will probably take a few years to unwind. Although after living in Denmark I got used to shopping presents in October because they had to be sent back to Iceland, and also because I had no time to think of them in November and December when exams were drawing nearer.

I had to go out at 10:30 last night to get something for the "santa" to put in his shoe in the window. Unlike my friend Stína I don´t have to worry about my son becoming a chocaholic as he doesn´t like chocolade. When I was a child I didn´t like it either, or coka cola! I have since grown up... Here in Iceland there is a tradition for children to put their shoes in the window and then the 13 yuletide lads take turns putting something nice in the shoe on their way to town. I don´t know where this tradition comes from, according to my resources it is only about 50 years old. The icelandic yuletide lads however are very old, they used to be trolls who would steal food and other neccessities from the homes and their mother ate the naughty children! The household cat was an enourmous beast who would eat any child that didn´t get a new piece of clothing for Christmas. The stories of Grýla (yuletide lad´s mom) and Leppalúði (her husband), along with the Christmas cat were told as horror stories to children to scare them so they wouldn´t misbehave. Apparantly the Danish king (this was back when Iceland was under Danish ruel) heard of this atrocity and issued a law to forbid scaring children with stories of Grýla and her kind.

I have been so busy lately, in fact I still can´t see rest ahead. I am now back to working every morning in my dad´s firm, and three times a week I soak in the blue lagoon after lunch with my fellow sufferers. This leaves two afternoons a week plus weekends to work on my paper, which is coming along slowly on account that I am always tyred when working on it. Since my husband usually works until 6 or 7 (sometimes longer) I have to pick up our son from school, shop for groceries, make dinner, make sure homework gets done, wash dishes and in the evening I work on the home-made christmas presents I´m giving this year. Presents are homemade mostly because I like home-made presents better, but also partly because they are cheaper and we have to save money since I only have half an income while still not finished with school. Finances should get a little better in january when I get paid for my stay in the country, however I do not seem to find time to write the 50 or so bills I have to send to the farmers myself. I keep telling my husband that when I start working as a vet and earn twice what he gets we can afford to have another child and he could stay home and look after the household . Strangely enough cooking and cleaning all day does not seem to appeal to him very much... In fact it´s not my dream either, so who´s gonna do it??

Counter blues

I put in a counter on my site today. OMG the zeros look big! I almost regret doing this. We´ll see if anything starts ticking if I get busy writing stuff here...