Jólastemmning

Christmas spirit

In Icelandic there is the expression "Ég er mikið jólabarn! " - "I am a total Christmas child!"

This shows that you are still looking forward to Christmas like a child, to the Advent season, all the beautiful lights, the Christmas decorations, the good food, just the time of year when it is dark outside and the smells of Christmas come through All rooms can be moved and you can make yourself really comfortable at home with your loved ones. Doesn't that sound beautiful...?!?

Normally I'm always the "total Christmas child". Only this year - I think I'm broken. Somehow I don't feel like Christmas at all... I have to do something.

I once started distributing Christmas decorations in our Iceland house. When I turn on the electric candles in the wooden stand above the stove and look outside and there's some snow, it feels a bit like Christmas, doesn't it?

Then I just have to remember to take the candle holder down and put it somewhere else before we fire up the oven...

I also freed the glowing Christmas gnome from his drawer and gave him a new battery. Now he can spread his cozy light again, from sunset (currently around 3:30 p.m. for us) to sunrise (currently around 11:15 a.m.).

And I also hung the Christmas curtain on the kitchen window, red checked and with big snowflakes and little Christmas elves. Plus a Christmas tea that smells wonderfully of cinnamon...

In the hallway I wrapped a red, glittering garland around the frame of the mirror...

...and our Christmas tree is up and ready for use. My husband made the tree himself, a "tree" made of wooden blocks with green-painted "branches" and a beautiful, colorful string of lights. By the way, with this tree we are following the Icelandic tradition of homemade, green-painted Christmas trees.

I'm also on vacation now and today I finally baked my first Christmas cookies. Maybe now I'll finally get in the mood when things get a little quieter here...

[Translated from here.]