And all the best for you and your family! 
We went to the annual bonfire (this year again a huge pile of wood) and fireworks. It was the first time my mum joined and I think she hadn't seen anything like this before. The weather wasn't perfect, but we enjoyed it a lot anyway.

Last visit to our horses at Ísólfsstaðir before the turn of the year. It was cold, but still weather and after talking to the farmer, we got the permission to open the gate to the meadows for the horses. As they didn't get it straight away, Óli went to fetch them and came with a long queue of horses down to the gate.
I was ready with my camera and got some very nice shots. The herd was definitely happy to get to new grounds and have a feast of bread waiting for them. It was so much easier for them walking in the snow than it was for us, but we managed.
Soon we'll start to fetch the pregnant mares and the first riding horses.

We had a very peaceful and calm Christmas with a lot of food, long walks and good times together.
It's nice when you have the possibility to take good time in preparing food, trying out new recipes and chatting along. Quality time!
Of course our horses got their share of Christmastreats and were chewing happily on all the bread we brought along.

Today we got it right and my mum and me met 3 of the Icelandic Yuletide Lads. The others were for sure doing some nonsense elsewhere. Probably fishing for dried fish or trying to get their brother Stúfur into his annual bath.
There's always a lot of fun, song and happiness around these guys and so, after introducing themselves to my mum, they invited her to join in, sing and dance with them and the other people there.
We both enjoyed our visit and of course took some pics as a memory.
In the evening we were invited over to Hulda's place to have Skata (fermented stingray), which is traditionally eaten the day before Christmas. Actually tastes better than it smells.

My mum is going to stay with us over Christmas and a good part of January. As she likes the Icelandic Yuletide Lads quite a lot, we decided to visit them today at their home at Lake Mývatn. Unfortunately we didn't get the time right and they were already busy doing some mischief when we arrived. So we maybe try again tomorrow. Instead we had a look at the geothermal area at Hverarönd, which was really impressiv in such cold weather.
Afterwards we showed my mum how traditional Icelandic Leafbread is made and after a short instruction, we all had fun cutting patterns and frying the bread.

Our horses are still on holiday and we used the good weather to check them out. The youngsters are in our fence close to Húsavík, the others at Ísólfsstaðir. They are all looking very well and definitely have enough to feed on. Couldn't see that List has lost any weight... 

Schlumbergeria hybrids, better known as Christmas or Holiday cacti have always been in my family, my grandma had at least 2 huge ones, my grandad had a few and I had a big one and some smaller in Austria. Of course I had to get one when I moved to Iceland and luckily Ingólfur's parents had one and I got a cutting, which already started to flower before I had even put it in a pot. Well, since then I got a few more and of course different colours. There's red, pink, whitish-pink, white and 2 shades of yellow and a few fellows still denying to flower, so I have no clue which colour they are. But those flowering at the moment had a small photoshooting today.
I definitely recommend you to get one of those easy to care for fellows, such a beauty when in flower and the plant itself is decorative, too.

Our Dragontree had, again, reached the ceiling and it was time to do something about it before moving it to a new pot. So we fetched the big clippers and in no time, the tree was felled, cut in pieces (2 went into a vase to try and let them take root) and the wound sealed. Now we have to wait and see what nature is going to do about this and hope for one or better two new stems from the old one. Keep your fingers crossed!
In the next days the tree will be repotted and get a narrower and deeper pot on wheels. Will be easier for us to move it around.

Now all our horses are on holiday, none of them inside or in training. Fönix and Svípur got their freedom back today after their basic training. Fönix did very well, so much fun to work with him. Alltogether he was with a rider about 5 times, which we thought enough for him as he did everything we asked him for. Fönix shows both clearbeat tölt and trott with a rider, which is much more than we dared to hope straight away. He gives his rider a very good feeling, not scared of things or sounds, always with at least one ear at his rider listening what to do next. Hope he'll stay that way.
Svípur isn't as far as Fönix, but was already mounted and did that very well. He's a bit more sensitive and reminds me a lot of Sigtýr.
Well, these two joined Gísli's mares Hrauna and Herðubreið and our youngsters in the field and will have a long holiday now.
Of course we checked on our other horses and visited those at Ísólfsstaðir. They are having a great time there as the last storm, when it started snowing like crazy here, blew away nearly all snow you saw on the last pics from there. So they are in horsey paradise with tons to eat and none of them has missed a single gram of fat I'd say (at least not my horses...). 
Last but not least we moved the big watertrough at the big field so we'd be able to close the gate to the upper fence when neccessary. Not much snow there either, so these horses are not being fed additionally at the moment as there's still a lot of grass there.

Today was the annual christmasmarket the local sportsclub organises and we had, like the last years, ordered a place to sell handwork for Ingólfur's dad and ourselves. So the last days we were busy with preparing and finishing the things we wanted to take with us. Of course our foodexperiments with the filet of mouton and the sausages were part of it. Ingólfur prepared a lot of different types of confect and baked so called Sörur, which are a very popular kind of filled christmas cookies with chocolate.
There was a lot of beautiful handicrafts like carved and painted wooden birds, knitted jumpers and gloves, beautiful handmade christmascards and a lot more. People came, had a look and stopped to chat, asking about the things we were offering and of course tasting the sausages and filet. Most liked what they tried and quite a few bought pralines, Sörur or meat. In the end Ingólfur had to go and fetch the rest, which we hadn't even packed properly yet. When the market was over, there were 7 of 42 pairs of sausages and 2 small pieces of filet left. Well, I'd say things did really go well today!
And I got myself a beautifuly carved male rock ptarmigan, which will be part of our christmasdecoration.