Christmas is all around us...

So..we had a great Christmas dinner with my coworkers. It was at the nice place with some great traditional Icelandic/Scandinavian Christmas food. Here are some pictures, so , here it goes:

First, is the picture of myself...the beautiful Marina :)



Here is the picture of all our staff...we are very few, only 7 people at the moment, 3 of us were working for the company more than 7 years already...such a long time...



This is just a picture of Helga, myself and Magnús.

And here is a great picture of the food...

It is the second hot/cold appetizers course. Includes nicely baked beef tongue, reindeer pate, chicken salad, swedish meatballs, beef carpaccio, pork and smoked lamb.


And then - here is the picture of the main hot course.
It included - turkey, salted baked cod, baked pork with the glaze, and beef. Plus some gratin potato, red cabbage and salad.
And then was some dessert but I was too full and almost was not able to move any more... :) So, it was a great dinner party, put me in a very nice holiday spirit.

Month of December

So..as I promised..I am making a new post each month! Wow...such an achievement...

Anyways...December is here, snow has arrived to Iceland and the cold weather as well...So..real Christmas weather outside, makes you not want to go outside but sit home in front of the computer and waste the time on Facebook.com...And I was doing it for some time now :) Not too proud of myself.

A year is almost over..time flies so fast...And there are still so many things to do before Christmas - finish buying all those gifts, sending the cards...But it only makes things better - I already baked some cookies - called "the mother's cookies" and a great thing is that I am a mother now, so it really suits me!!!!

So..next to another post..this one is finished. new topic new post :)

The 4 things

4 Random Things About Me:

1. I was born in the country that doesn’t exist any more– Soviet Union.
2. Lived, studied and worked in the United States for 5 years.
3. Took driving tests and exams and - passed in three countries - Russia, the USA and Iceland.
4. Had a 12-hour stay on the nice island of Cyprus.

4 Guilty Pleasures:

1. Chocolate fountain!
2. Swiss chocolate.
3. Hot Icelandic drinking chocolate.
4. Grilled Icelandic lamb.

4 Things I Am Drawn To Buy Even When I Don't Need Them:

1. Nice boots/shoes for myself
2. All types of clothes for my girl :)
3. Clothes for myself
4. Accessories.

4 Challenges I Face On A Daily/ Weekly Basis:

1. Patience with the little child and the big one called my man.
2. Keeping up my friends' busy lives.
3. Keeping up with house cleaning.
4. Not knowing what to cook for the little child and the big one as well :).

4 Books That Have Helped/Inspired Me This Year:

1. Harry Potter 1
2. Harry Potter 2
3. Harry Potter 3
4. and so on…all seven of them.
   Ok, it was not that inspiring maybe, but I was quite impressed and entertained.

A girl is 17 months old...

So, time is flying..people are being born, some are getting older....There is this woman in the west part of Iceland that just turned 100 years old...she had a friend visiting her who is 104 years old..man..some people are living it all....

Anyways, our girl just turned 17 months 2 days ago...I bet the time will go fast and soon she will be 17 years old :) We are very proud of her...

Here are some new pictures, taking just this last weekend. She is wearing a Russian costume that her grandma brought from Russia.:

SO, next month she will be already 1,5 years old..wow..and it will be Christmas too...looking forward to some nice meal sharing and celebrations...

Iceland in crisis

Just a little update to the world - we are still surviving...

Nowadays..it's all about the financial crisis...In Russia, in the US, and of course, in the little country of Iceland.

It is weird how bad news always travel the fastest...I have friends from all over the world, from some far away places like Kamchatka :) asking me if I am planning to leave Iceland, since the situation is not good any more...

But luckily, I am taking it well and try to not take it too closely. We are surviving, we did not have any shares in those banks that almost went bankrupt...I do though have a savings pension fund there but it is insured by the government, so no big worries...

The only big problem is that if someone wants to take some currency out of the bank, US dollars or Euros, it is not possible at the moment...banks just don't have it....

Of course, I could never have imagined that after surviving the crisis in Soviet Union, and then Russia...I would witness something similar...well....Economy is bringing us some unpleasant surprises...

Some people say that it might get worse, so we just wait and see....meanwhile, we will try to live and be happy with only just what we have at the moment.

An update of a girl's well being

Time is flying fast as always and our girl will be 15 months in 2 days and her Mom will be 34 years old after 4 days....Wow...life is taking it's turn....

So, the girl is walking, running, not jumping yet though :), dancing, singing, playing piano in her own way and talking her own way too...plus some words in Icelandic, very few though yet.

While I am typing on the computer and listening to the Icelandic singer Bubbi, she is hanging around me, checking the cables:

Her teeth are coming out all the time almost now, with some small intervals. She had some bad days, when 4 teeth were coming out at the same time...it was not a fun time. Now it is all right for a moment.

The other day we had bought her some cool winter boots. All children clothes here in Iceland are so outrageously expensive and the boots were not exception either.

So, here is the picture of the cool expensive boots:

While I was taking a picture of her boots, she was happy that she could sneak out and take something while I was not watching her, so she stole a mouse pad and was eating it:

I speak Russian to her and she understands everything, and when Raggi asks her the same things in Icelandic, she understand them too..it is amazing...

So...from now on I will try to update the blog at least once a week and see how it goes:)

Vacation is over

So, our vacation has finished for a moment...we will have some more of course...at least a Christmas one...will be coming soon...hehe

So, time on Crete was great. WE enjoyed it, the girl took some time to adopt to a rather high temperature but then it was fine. We swam in the sea, sunbathed and ate lots of fruits...so, Marina's program for the vacation was fulfilled :)

Here are some cute pictures of us...

Tamara Lind's posing for Daddy:

An evening in Xania:

So..for now, we are enjoying the time in Iceland, our home and looking forward to a new vacation...thought have not decided yet where :)