Blogging aversion

Okay- so I took a little vacation from blogging. It was the funniest thing...

You might have noticed the new widget in the right column. We were excited to find out that Baby #2 is expected to arrive in early August! As part of that whole first trimester, fatigue, morning sickness, food aversion unpleasantness (which I don't remember being as bad the first time around- but maybe nobody remembers it or else everyone would be an only child), I would get nauseated if I spent any length of time sitting at the computer. This put a huge crimp in several of my favorite activities: internet shopping, browsing SplitCoastStampers for ideas, and BLOGGING.

I thought it might be the lighting in the room or the computer monitor bothering my eyes. I thought it might be that the desk chair was uncomfortable. I finally realized that it was a scented candle we had in the computer room. For whatever reason the smell of the candle really turned my stomach.

Rick being the ever dutiful and understanding husband removed the offending candle and... voila! I grabbed my credit card and headed to amazon.com.

Ah- the simple things

For his birthday, Will asked for "a dog cake and balloons all over the house". We were happy to oblige. We celebrated on Christmas Eve at my parents' house.Grandpa blew up about 30 helium balloons. It really did look like there were balloons all over the house.Rick found a really neat bakery in town called 'Merry Cakes'. They made this awesome cake that looked like a pile of puppies. Almost too cute to eat. Almost.

Christmas Crafting

I finally made one of those neat stationary boxes. I made it for my Aunt Ann for Christmas (she's my neatest aunt). It was too cold to take it outside for pictures, so I did my best with a sunny window.

Decmber 24th - Kertasnikir

Last but not least is Kertasnikir, or Candle Beggar. He's actually kind of sweet if you can overlook him pyromaniac tendencies. He likes candlelight so he hides in a corner and, when no one is watching, he takes a Christmas candle for himself.That's all of the Yule lads. They hang around until Christmas Day when they start to go back to the mountains one be one. The last one leaves on January 6th and the Icelanders celebrate with big bonfires and fireworks. The Icelanders will use any excuse to shoot off fireworks- it's pretty spectacular.

Gledileg Jol, ya'll!

December 23rd - Ketkrokur

Ketkrokur, or Meat Hook, sounds more like something out of a very un-Christmasy horror movie if you ask me. But actually he sits on top of the chimney and when he sees meat smoking over the fire, he lowers a hook down to steal it. That's something to keep in mind the next time you smoke meat in your fireplace.

December 22nd - Gattapefur

To help him find his way to your house, Gattapefur, or Door Sniffer, has a huge nose... which I guess he uses to sniff through doors. Hmmm

december 21st - Gluggagaegir

Gluggagaegir, or Window Peeper, stands outside the windows and peeks inside. If someone happens to catch a glimpse of him, he makes an ugly face.

Creepy.