Russian Easter

So, this last Sunday as you know it..was a Russian Easter...
I did not go the the service since usually - it starts at 23.59 and goes on for 2-3 hours until 3 in the morning...Since we now have a little girl, so it is a good excuse to stay at home :)

But, I did manage to paint some eggs on Saturday and take them to the church for a special ceremony to make them holly...Though nobody wanted to eat the eggs afterwards except myself :)

Here is a picture that was taken by a reporter from a local newspaper...I am the second person from the right..

People at work all recongnized me and were happy to see me there I guess.

So..Easter season for us is over and the choir season is over for some time...we were lucky that we did not sing for the Easter service this year, there was another choir from Moscow...But we did sing for a Palm Sunday and it was very nice.

Jón Aron's Confirmation

So..here in Iceland, all the kids are baptized when they are babies...then comes the time, when they are 14 years old - then can choose to have a confirmation of their faith...Some kids do it, some don't and there is even an option to have some kind of confirmation but not a religious one...

Anyways, Raggi's son, Jón Aron, has turned 14 on April 7th and he wanted to have a confirmation. He had to take a special course at his local church for that...Raggi and Jón's Mom planned and organized the big celebration. Usually, the whole family, relatives and friends are invited...Mostly people give money instead of presents or open some saving account for the kid...Jón's party had about 90 guests...It was great...

There were some other kids that had confirmation that day - total 3 boys and 3 girls, so some images from the church:

I was not at the ceremony myself, so I can only guess how it goes...Here we can see Jón's parents on his sides - I guess the family participates as well...
It was a first summer day, some small church in the little town on the East...

And here is another photo - you can see the church and the priest (not sure how they call them at Lutheran churches...)

So.

Then, Last Sunday, we went to another confirmation (ferming - in Icelandic) to Jón's cousin. It was great too..but not a religious one...But we didn't go to the ceremony but enjoyed the great party and the food.

A ten-month old anniversary!

So..the day has arrived..our girl is 10 months old...Just only after 2 more months we will be celebrating a big 1-year old birthday...
This is how she looks when she is sleeping: very cute:



Then, when she is awake, she is looking pretty cute too...playing with the tape :)
She is taking that task very seriously...

Then, the most recent picture that was taken today - I tried to make her stand up but she was so involved in trying to get some cable out of the computer...

So, then finally she just sat down a little bit and I managed to take a better picture...But there is something wrong with the server at the moment so I cannot upload it..just be patient and I will set it later tonight I hope...

Weekend

So..last weekend we had a nice sunny weather...almost the Spring weather....

We have decided to go for a nice walk on our Icelandic beach in the city of Reykjavik - Nautholsvik. It was great....We walked, enjoyed the view of the waterfront and hoped for the warmer weather so we can go swimming there in the hot pot. There is a special hot pot, where people can swim a little. It is possible to find some info here for people who are interested.. I personally have not tried it yet, but plan to this coming summer with my young family.

On Sunday, we had a small celebration for Jon Aron, Raggi's son - his birthday is today, on Monday, April the 7th...So, everybody went to the movies and then I joined them at Pizza Hut while Tamara Lind was at her granny's.

So, it was a nice family relaxing weekend....