Yeah, I’m still out there somewhere in the middle of the snow storm and no, I didn’t forget about you people or this blog. I was actually thinking a lot about it, because I had a lot of moments worth blogging about in the last weeks. But as the number of these moments grew bigger and bigger, it somehow got even harder to start writing. Anyway, here I am on the second day of Christmas, finally.

I already wrote a lot about Icelandic Christmas things in the last entry but I have so many thing to add. In contrast to my normal weekends here in Hjalli, I have been pretty busy during December, especially on the weekend of the third Advent. On Friday night we had a Christmas party with the staff of the high school, which was a lot of fun and included (as always) a lot of delicious food and the best thing about it: I got a “Blockflöte” in the presents game. So be prepared for me being a pro when I come back to Germany! On Saturday I had to get up at 12 am, which is far too early for my Icelandic-winter self 😉 but it was totally worth it. I got to enjoy the Christmas concert of the music school in Laugar and it was so amazing to see all of “my” kids doing so well and being so brave.

Of course just listening doesn’t make a day busy, so I accepted the very kind invitation of Búi and Gummi to join them and their sons to the lagoon at Mývatn for the bath of the Santa Clauses. Too crazy, too cool, too much fun to discribe it, I will try to find some pictures on the internet, I didn’t risk my phone by taking it with me to the pool, some of you know, that my phones are always magically drawn to water. 😉 Basically you could talk to the Santa Clauses, brush there backs or get yours brushed by one of them and most beautifully enjoy the moon light and the northern lights, when the crazy guys had gone back to there mummy. AMAZING!!!!

But still the weekend wasn’t over, some very important preparations had to be made and what’s the most important thing you need for Christmas? Yeah, of course, food! So on Sunday I went over to Júlía’s and Búi’s place again and joined them making “laufabrauð”. Before I fail to discribe it porperly, just have a look at the pictures:

We made around 70 and I had the feeling this was a huge lot, but after talking to other families I recognized: You only do it right, if you make 300 and more- challenge accepted for the future! 😉

School was on until 20.12 but there was not much of “real” school during December: Dancing lessons, handicrafts, christmas card making, games, sledging, movies, singing… It was absolutely chaotic but we all had a lot of fun. For me it was really nice to get the chance to spend time with all the kids, just playing games and chatting and singing and watching movies with them, I got to know them a lot better and enjoyed it so much! All the Christmas craziness at school ended with “Litlujól” on the last day of school, with presents, some cosy time and the Christmas meal at school, where all the kids and teachers sat together at wonderfully decorated tables and enjoyed the super-delicious food. Definitely one of the moments I will always remember. I was even a little bit sad after all the kids went, the end of the first semester means that nearly half of my stay is over after all, but the happiness about the holidays outweighed everything else soon 😉

And now we finally reach Christmas, the real Christmas eve and all that, I will try to make it short, which will probably not work 😉 My Icelandic Christmas couldn’t have been any better: I had a snow storm, seriously good food, a power cut, a lot of candles, presents and most of all, I had my wonderful host family to celebrate the birth of Jesus with – thank you so much for everything! I had all the greetings and presents and wishes from my loved ones all around the world and the feeling that I am right where I belong, even though I would have loved to be at home for Christmas. You might wonder what else I did on the Christmas holidays and the answer is very easy: nothing beside sleeping and eating and it was the best thing to do 🙂

 

I want to wish everyone of you a merry Christmas, even though the holidays are nearly over. Enjoy whatever you are doing and have a great time!

I will do the same,

Maria!