Have you seen those Yule Lads?

Four of the original 13 Yule Lads, photo taken around 1757

They have all sorts of funny names like Skyr-gobbler, Window-Peeper, Gully-Gawker, Meat-Hook, Spoon-Licker, and Door-Sniffer, their names describing their modus operandi over the Christmas Season, starting on December 13th.  Each one arrives in turn, leaving 2 weeks later, with the last one leaving on January 6th. I won't tell you here what kinds of mischief they have been up to over the centuries .....let me tell you, you DO NOT want to know what they have been up to!  Their parents are Grýla and Leppuleði, trolls who live in the mountains with their black cat.  Luckily for the rest of the world's children, the Jolasveinar are virtually unknown outside of Iceland. And we are happy for that!

Lately it has been rumored that these naughty guys are to blame for much of Iceland's economic woes and the parents of Iceland's most notorious banksters and politicians are now in the middle of a major identity crisis.

"We just thought they were rather harmless and had no idea they would have such dissastrous effects on the moral fiber of our children" lamented one parent.

In 1857, around the time a guy named Klaus from Finland was awarded the international "Best Choice Ever" for Santa Claus award, the Yule Lads noticed that they still had a ways to go if they ever hoped to compete for the pre-eminent role of Father Christmas in their latter years.  It has been very touch and go for them in this department as the kind and benevolent qualities of Saint Klaus have been a bit beyond them.  However, to their credit, we have noticed some changes over the years including the donning of the de-rigeur red suit and placing of gifts in children's shoes if they have been good.  They who? The Yule Lads or the children?  A profound question.

Here are two of them chatting together in a shop in Hveragerði where they were greeting customers and were overheard discussing the possibility of buying a much needed corset for their mother Gryla.

A few days before Christmas they came to our house!!!  These guys are still up to tricks and are seen here pilfering a type of sausage that they helped themselves to from the fridge, without asking mind you!

Can you believe these guys?  Taking our Christmas leg of lamb out of the freezer in hopes of making off with it without me noticing?

Hey!  That's our leg of lamb you got there! Note the sac bulging with canned goods which they are not bringing to us-- they are taking from us!

You see? I told you they are making progress in their moral development!  In a rare display of repentance they decided to give back everything except two candy canes  which they took from the Christmas tree.  They  also decided that putting it all back in the washing machine was of course the most logical place.

 

After doing summersaults, they are off in the rescue jeep.  That's the jeep that rescues them out of all their disgracefully un-Christmas like behavior.  However, like I said, they have made huge progress over the centuries so this is really not too bad compared to what they used to do several hundred years ago.

The last one, named Candle-Beggar, steals candles or at least used to when they were made of tallow, which is edible.  He must have been desperately poor to have to eat candles.....but that was then and this is now.  Really not sure what he does now with wax candles, but the good news is that he leaves on January 6th when we can all rest easy.....sort of.....until next year.

Somewhere beyond the Blue

Our dear Blue, the orange cat died some time in the night. I had just realized a week ago that she was pregnant, and when I woke up yesterday morning she was sitting in the bath tub in a tiny pool of blood, the beginning of a miscarriage. Well, it was progressing well, two kitten sacs came out but then I moved her to the laundry room thinking she would be fine there. When I went back to check on her later on, there was one more kitten sac on the floor but no Blue! She had jumped out the window and was nowhere to be found. Thinking she was somewhere nearby and would soon return,I waited a few more hours and then by early evening she still wasn't anywhere around so I set off to search the open fields all around the house. She could have been anywhere. It was getting dark and hard to see and this is where I am feeling really bad because if I had not procrastinated and had gone out earlier I would have seen her down by the stream.

I went out again this morning to look for her and finally found her in the grass near the stream about 50 meters from the house. I suspect that she had not been able to push out one more kitten and she died from that, not to mention that it was very cold last night. I had NO idea a cat would die from this!! She is survived by her 5 kittens from a previous litter who are all orange, 4 of whom have found good homes so we shall keep the last one in memory of their noble mom, Blue. Till we meet again someday beyond the Blue...rip sweet kitty and good friend. Life is precious.

A Hug from the Words of Jesus

photos, top to bottom:

1. Thea looking great!

2. Confirmations are a bit of a big deal here in Niceland as you can tell by the photos. Most kids do it at around age 14 and it is very sweet and sincere. Since Thea had already committed herself to the Lord at age 12, I knew she was doing this with her whole heart and that is why we went for it.

3. The butterfly cake and matching cupcakes made by Mom....about 40 people attended the party after the church ceremony including most of Eman's family, and all our new Icelandic friends.

4. We do everything possible to bring in a bit more colour and warmth as Spring approaches.

5. The little 19th century town church where the confirmation was held...very cute. The church only held about 50 to 60 friends and relations of the 6 young people getting confirmed, all friends from school. I would have never done something like this in the States, but the Icelandic Lutheran church has a sweet, sincere, simplicity about it and is still an important part of life in Iceland somehow.

The Blue Lagoon

 

The Blue Lagoon is truly an amazing experience....at least I loved it as did Emma and Brandt. I have heard a few comments from young people saying that is was over rated, so I went not quite knowing what to expect. Fortunately I was pleasantly surprised and would definitely recommend it to everyone who has gotten out of their teens and into real life......teens with a tiny view of life? The white silica mud was wonderful and squishy between the toes acting as a fine abrasive and makes you look something like an Aborigine with war paint. We were there on a clear day with blue skies and a slight dusting of snow on the surrounding lava dunes which made it very surreal with the steam rising from the hot pools. Hmmmmm.......take me back!

We are really getting VERY Icelandic now....

I knew that once we got an Icelandic sheep dog it would be clear to all that we are now a permanent fixture on the Icelandic landscape, which is not a bad thing in itself considering the absolutely stunning views we have here! But no we are not settling down just because we have a dog now, I mean us settle down? No way! ..... Jose or whatever your name is. So this is Snorri who is a great all around guy and fits in so well with the scenery! (click on photo to enlarge)

So the newest news is that we are online now at home! Finally! At our newest place of residence, in the posh area of town where a few of the insanely rich of Iceland chose to put their homes and or summer houses. Some of these have recently become the *baddies* of Iceland and being our neighbors we hope we can influence them in a positive way now that their Icelandic moneyship is sinking. One of them is the Minister of Justice who needs oodles of help just now. Eman has had a few casual conversations with him so far...... go Eman!

We are of course affected by the present state of affairs: namely the price of food is going up daily. OK, well not as fast as it does in Zimbabwe, but lets just say we hope Iceland doesnt become the first Nordic Third World Country!

Glethileg Jol or Merry Christmas from Iceland

Wishing you a very healthy, happy and hearty Christmas to all our friends all over the world! Also wishing you SNOW of course and many beautiful snowflakes to brighten your life.

Even though it is Jesus' birthday and we do our humble bit to show Him our love especially at this time of year, I find that He seems to have great fun bestowing gifts upon us also at Christmas! Especially in the last few years, He seems to be very attentive to our thoughts and surprises us with a little gift which we were not necessarily expecting. Now the presents from Him come in unexpected ways and are not from our friends and loved ones either.....as for me He seems to monitor my thoughts! One year, I noticed a pink fluffy bathrobe with matching pajamas and wistfully thought to myself how nice and cosy that would be, but of course I couldn't really afford it and I just never seem to be able to bring myself to buy clothes for myself anyway. So imagine my surprise when friends arrive with a box of clothes and there in my size? Pink fluffy pajamas of course!

So every year there are those little surprises that come from Him and we know in our heart of hearts this is ture. So I would like to ask you a question. Do you have a special gift bestowed upon you in secret that you know is from our best husband and friend? If so I would love for you to send it to me and who knows, maybe I will compile these one day and publish them for all to enjoy!

Such a special time of year! Merry Christmas!

Kross

The view north-east from our front door.

Nice rainbow, huh? This is one of the views from our front door...the little church with it own graveyard. The house on the right also belongs to the church. Now the thing is, people don´t ever attend church in Iceland anymore, especially not this type of Lutheran church. But sometimes tourist buses pull up for a look and then there is the occasional baptism performed here, but that is about all they ever use the church for. Nevertheless, everyone born in Iceland is a member of the church when they get baptised. After the earthquake one of the local priests called up all the members of her parish. She called one of my friends to see how she was doing after the earthquake, you know, to find out if she was ok. Well, my friend was fine, but proceeded to tell this priest some real major problems she was having ( a supposed friend had embezzeled 10 million Icelandic kroner from her ) but the priest didn´t want to get involved with hearing her problems!

Enter.........us! We take up where the local priest leaves off!

Here is a recent testimony: We have been doing Bible studies with Guthny from Buland, you remember, the organic dairy farm where we first lived. Guthny, recently went on a weeklong riding tour into the mountains taking some of their horses. One of the riders suddenly became very fearful of her horse and couldn´t go onwards. They were in the a very desolate area so this was a rather serious setback as horseback was the only means of transportation. There was a psychologist on the tour who talked to the woman to see if he could help her but to no avail. Others tried to reason with her but her fears were overcoming her and she refused to go onwards. Finally Guthny asked her if she could pray for her. The woman said yes, she asked Jesus into her heart and then Guthny prayed for the demons of fear to leave her. Well, that did the trick, the woman felt better right away and the riding tour continued. The psychologist is now interested in learning about the power of prayer!

Domi and Thea have a part time job!!!

Believe it or not Thea and Domi just started working (with Eman) at "N1" on weekends! This is the place where Eman worked over the winter. In summer it becomes more like a "travel centre" and I think half of Reykjavik was there with another few thousand touristsin their tourist buses this past weekend. It is the last outpost of civilization as there is virtually nothing between us and the next major town of Vik 100kms away! So everybody stops here to eat, fillup their tanks, etc. before going onwards. If I am here, even I help out but that is strictly just to be nice as sometimes the personnel are soooooo overloaded they can't even keep up! They work 12hour shifts, most of them! They told me they were very impressed with Domi & Thea, how well they worked etc, so that was nice to hear.

Hvolsvöllur is just a village with about 800 people living here. Life is very safe as there is no crime, I doubt people even lock their houses and everybody knows each other. The doctor in town recognised Eman after 35 years; he used to play with Eman´s brother when they were about 10 years old! So the "N1" as it is called, is pretty much the busiest place in town, expecially now in the summer. So it is a very good experience for the girls getting a taste of real life, work ethics and learning Icelandic at the same time.

Between this weekend job and the tree planing during the week, they keep themselves pretty busy!

Photos:
#1 Some of the sweet kids who work at N1 and Eman at the far end.
#2 Eman taking care of customers
#3 Domi wiping down tables on Sunday night as the dinner rush ended.
#4 Thea stocking shelves

Random Photos ( scroll to bottom for captions)

#1 "The Shed" sits next to the milk can platform, ( see photos #5 & 6) On warm days the milk cans would go in this turf shed which helped to keep the milk cool. It was also used as a shelter from storms by people waiting for long distance buses and for farm children waiting to be picked up by the local school bus.

#2 The farmer's wife, Ester, drives the tractor at Kross. View to the west from the deck of the summer house we are staying in on a very sunny day!

#3 A pretty good photo of the nearby falls, Seljalandfoss, which I found on the internet. Although the grass is very green now, this photo has obviously been colored and that is why is only rates "pretty good". This is maybe the only falls in Iceland that you can walk behind. I go very often as it is only a 15 minute drive.

#4 Me at Skogafoss. Photo taken by a friend last winter- note lack of water in the falls, usually there is much more in the summer months. This is a 30 minute drive from the house. Will try to get a more spectacular photo of these falls.

#5 Lambafell- the house we were sitting in having coffee when the earthquake occured.
Also for sale- only $10 million. If you Google "Lambafell, Iceland" you can see photos of the inside.

#6&7 When Asgeir was young he had to carry the milk cans out to the road. The milkcans were placed on a platform such as the one shown here and would be picked up by a truck. Now they have refrigerated trucks which drive directly to the farms.


#8 The hot tub at Lambafell is fed by this natural hot spring which gushes just a few metres away from the house.

#9 Another view of Lambafell

#10 At the tree planting location with Halldor (5) from Buland at the tree planting location.