Blog
Monday 28. December 2009
- Happy ending!
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Friday 18. December 2009
- Naughty or nice? As you might know we in Iceland have our special Christmas tradition about the Icelandic Yule lads.From Wikipedia:
„The Yule Lads originate from Icelandic folklore. Early on their number and depictions varied greatly depending on location, with each individual Lad ranging from mere pranksters to homicidal monsters that eat children.
In 1932 the poem "Jólasveinarnir" was published as a part of the popular poetry book "Jólin Koma" ("Christmas Arrives") by Icelandic poet Jóhannes úr Kötlum. The poem reintroduced Icelandic society to Icelandic Yuletide folklore and established what is now considered the 'official' thirteen Yule Lads, their personalities and connection to other folkloric characters. The Yule Lads are traditionally said to be the sons of the mountain-dwelling trolls Grýla and Leppalúði. Additionally, the Yule Lads are often depicted with the Yuletide Cat, a beast that, according to folklore, eats children that don't receive new clothes in time for Christmas.
In modern times the Yule Lads have been depicted as taking on a more benevolent role comparable to Santa Claus and other related figures and putting small gifts (or potatoes if the child has misbehaved) into shoes placed by children into their windows the last thirteen nights before Christmas Eve. They are occasionally depicted as wearing the costume traditionally worn by Santa Claus, but are otherwise generally shown wearing late medieval style Icelandic clothing.
The Yule lads are said to "come to town" during the last 13 nights before Christmas, each staying for two weeks before departing. “
Anyway, if you are nice you will get a Christmas gift while if you are naughty the Yule lad gives you a potato. This morning KI got a potato. She was far from nice last night and mom said to her. This night you will get a potato. Not even for a minute she believed moms word.
At first sight she went very sad. Mom and dad explained her behavior was far beyond acceptance and she has to understand there are certain rules to follow. For a second she was quite. Then she nodded and hugged both mom and dad. She understood that she had been naughty.
I, on the other hand, was more or less chocked by this situation and didn’t really know how to handle this. I grabbed the potato, hold it in my hand and said. KI got a potato. After a short whiles thinking I took my gift and said to KI. You can have mine. It is ok by me. KI took the gift and gave me a great hug.
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Tuesday 8. December 2009
- About Christmas We are fully occupied in singing Lucia songs. Yesterday evening was practice in the church. This morning we went to Orkuveita, the energy power of Iceland, and sang. Karin and I like it a lot and we are very proud of us now knowing all the songs and standing still with a candle (electric light) in our hand. We are wearing white long skirts with glitter in our hair. It is so lovely!Sundays we made a ginger-house and we decorated it with candy and sugar cream. We made a Santa world around the house. We also put a light into the house!
Sundays we too had finals of our dancing class were we danced around the Christmas tree, met Santa and showed all the parents what we have learnt during the season. In January the classes starts again and we cannot wait until then!
As you probably have noticed our daily life are filled with Christmas preparations and things occurring Christmas. It is so nice and we love this part of season.
It also makes me think about what Christmas is about. Yesterday I told mom that we are not really celebrating Christmas we are blessing Jesus on his birthday. “And that’s why there is a Christmas star, right mom?” True, mom answered though we are celebrating Christmas too. Nowadays, we are celebrating several things and Christmas is about many different thing and has several and different ways of purpose.
It’s true. And I like all of it!
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Wednesday 2. December 2009
- Christmas spririt Today I am invited to a birthday party. It is one of the girls at kindergarten that turns five! And we will wear „Tingeling“clothes. I have a blue one with wings. Karin was of course sad she was not invited so mom told her she could invite one of her friends. So she did. I bet it will be plenty of fun for both of us!We girls finds it very nice that mom is reading the story every morning and we are picking a winner.
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Wednesday 2. December 2009
- Christmas spririt Mom read for us this morning. We are sitting in the bed and she is reading the story she made for us.It also has a competition and yesterday we got lots of answers. Mom wrote all names on a paper and put all into a bowl. I drow LillMarie from Boden that recieves a Cristmas gift. Mom will send it by mail later today.
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Tuesday 1. December 2009
- Christmas here we goIt was amazing to see how great interest we got on our Christmas Calendar Today we started with a competition were to answer a question about our favorite character “Mamma MU” Mom has been reading the book all over and forever, we got the DVD and we got toys. However all is in Swedish so we beg our pardon that not all our readers can follow…
Anyway, mom started early this morning and read the first chapter and both I and Karin liked it a lot.
It has been busy time lately and Christmas preparation has begun. Yesterday the children in my department at kindergarten had Christmas scrapping and so it was too today. Mom and dad showed up and we were gluing and putting nice things together. I made a cat boat with a Yule Lad and Christmas gifts. So fun!
Our choir was gathered yesterday and I have started to learn all the songs. On the 13th of December our big show is in the church. We will be dress in white long skirts holding a candle. We smallest children will of course not have real candle as the grownups will.
On Saturday we will go to Heidmörk, the Reykjavik forest, for a small Christmas party and in the evening there is another Christmas feast.
Anyhow, last weekend was pretty nice. We lighted the first advent candle, went to church and to the Ambassadors residence. Just like the traditions says.
While best of all is that grannies are very soon arriving in Iceland. They will be with us all the Holidays.
