Icelandic Yuletide Lads

In Icelandic tradition, there are 13 Yule Lads who are offspring of the giant ogress Gryla and her subservient husband Leppaludi. This large family is supposed to live in a cave somewhere in the mountains and keeps quiet until Christmas approaches. Then the Yuletide lads take their once-a year bath and descend from their mountain home around Christmas. One comes each day beginning on December 12 to play tricks on townfolk. Each lad is named after his mischievious action: Stekkjastaur (Sheep-Cote Clod) heads directly for the sheep cote to have fun disturbing the sheep. He has stiff peg-legs.

Giljagaur (Gully Gawk) hides in gullies and steals milk from the cow shed.

Stufer (Stubby) is abnormally short and steals pans to eat the crust left in them.

Pvorusleikir ( Spoon Licker) is very lean and steals and licks spoons.

Pottasleikir (Pot Scraper) was a funny sort of chap. When kids were given scrapings, he'd come to the door and tap. And they would rush to see if there was really a guest. Then he hurried to the pot and had a scraping fest.

Huroaskellir (Door Slammer) When people in the twilight would take a little nap, herwas happy as a lark with the havoc he would wreak, slamming doors and hearing the hinges on them squeek.

Askasleikir (Bowl-licker) hides under beds and always arrives late enough to get the food left by children in their bowls.

Skyrgamur (Skyr-Gobbler) thinks of nothing but gormet food and steals skyr (like yogurt) from the larders whenever he gets the opportunity.

Bjugnakraekir (Sausage Snatcher) hides in the rafters and snatches smoking sausages.

Gluggagagaegir (Window Peeper) Looks through windows for things to steal.

Gattabefur (Door Sniffer) has an abnormally large nose and sniffs the doorway of houses for laufabraud (Christmas fried flat bread) .

Ketkrokur (Meat Hook) who likes smoked lamb very much, spares no effert to hook a leg of lamb from the stove through the chimney, although his hook at times is a tiny bit short.

Kertasnikir (Candle Beggar) who likes candle light and never gets enough candles for himself although he snatches quite a few from children.

Stacie's Reception

Stacie and Zach's Wedding Reception was beautiful. I'm just sorry Dayna and some of the kids had the flu and couldn't fully enjoy it.

This is David and Bobby (famous for his BobbyQ Sauce), who catered the event.

The fruit and vegitable display were beautiful.

These are views of the newly constructed pergola,before and after sunset.

David helped Steve get it done in time for the reception. (I'm just glad no one was killed or maimed raising those beams, though I understand some pain killers were needed for muscles strained the process.)

Here are a few views of the lanterns for Kimi, who is using them for her reception this Saturday.

The hit of the night for the kids was the sweet table. Jars of candy were available for scooping up and into the little orange bags or your mouth. Levi enjoyed the Skittles.

Painting in Progress

I just went out and took a picture of the coop painting in progress. The cream color is primer and the "Hot Chocolate" is the final color. I think he's used about 15 gallons so far. The trim will be white.
David came in to take a call.

Guess who came to visit?

We had a nice weekend visit from Kalisi, Will, Ana B and their parents, Lenna and Brandon. Here they are helping me get the chairs ready for the barbecue we had Saturday. It all started because they have friends from Bakersfield as well as relatives. (We're the relatives.) So we decided to get them together since their friends, The Taylors, live in Fresno now. So, we invited them and some other friends and family and had a great time together.

They brought me this, which I forgot to share

while everyone was here. Is that good or bad?

Chicken Coop Walls

The aviary (chicken coop) has walls and is ready for paint. Actually, it is being NOW. Hopefully, the new occupants can move in this weekend.

Block Wall

Here's a look at our new block wall we recently had

installed along the west side of the driveway.

Easter and Levi's 1st Birthday

Levi had his first birthday April 11th, so we waited a day to celebrate since we were having lots of our family come to our house for Easter. He is such a sweetie! He can walk several steps with a little confidence now, and he says, "Tickle, tickle, tickle" so cute you can't believe it. Although he is very friendly and loves people, his favorite person is, without a doubt, his mommy.

Levi, age 1 year 1 day

The Easter bucket brigade is ready for egg hunting. You can see the hail/rain/wind storm was quick to leave. We had beautiful sunny weather for the kids.

With a little encouragement from Granny and Grandma J., all the eggs were found and the bunny bucks redeemed.

Nathan was quick to find his dozen eggs, but discovered candy and not too many bunny bucks inside. He had to negotiate for his toys.
Kacy loves pink eggs, of course.
Will's a great egg hunter.

Jessie was a little under the weather,

but she managed to have a little fun too.

After the egg hunt, Karrie and the her kids went to Grandma Mayhall's house for dinner. Yvette, Gus, Eric, Kimi, Jake, Nathalie and Sophie came to join us for dinner, along with Angela, Lee, Lucy, baby Will, Gary and Marsha. Karl, Gaye, Jimmy, David, Lindsey and Sarah joined us later in the evening.

Oscar brought some of the chicks over for the kids to see.

We were amazed how fast they ate the bugs! Boys love chicks.
Lucy joined in too.

I didn't get a picture of little Sophie and her pretty polka dot Easter dress, because she left before I got my camera out after dinner. That's the disadvantage of being hostess. Yvette has some great pics of her on the Bryant Blog, so you better go there to see how cute she is.

Easter Hail Storm

Just before Easter we got a nice hail/rain/wind storm. I had cleaned up the yard and got everything looking pretty good, knowing that rain had been forecast, but it looked nice to me up until Thursday afternoon when the wind blew this in. Saturday, I had to hurry and rake up all the leaves and blown off branches.

Coop Progress

These are the forms for the cement upon which the walls of the chicken coop will rest. David is making slow, but sure progress. The chicks are currently housed in a big cardboard box in Jocelyn and Oscar's garage. Some of them have names and a pecking order has begun. They are anxiously awaiting their new home.

Three Boys and Rakes

I had a brainstorm. I was looking at all the pits from last year under the trees in the peach orchard and I thought, "What I need is some boys with rakes! They are old enough to learn how to work and feel they accomplished something." So I went to Lowe's and bought three little rakes and the next time they came over I offered them the job. They would get 1 candy of choice per tree raked. If they completed one whole row they could choose a new DVD movie, out to lunch with Grandma to the place of their choosing, or a toy of their choice.

The RESULTS:

Nathan raked 5 trees.

Jared raked 2 trees.

Spencer said," No way!" but wanted to play with the rake.

Fresh Baked Bread

Since we learned how to bottle butter,

I decided we needed something on

which it could be sampled properly.

Happy Birthday Jessie!

Sweet little Jessie is ONE today! She is a joy to have in the family and is always so happy. Her smile is a treat. She is super fassssst at crawling, and I bet it won't be long before she's running around with big kids. The little curls behind her ears are so cute .We love her bunches!We celebrated yesterday. Jessie's favorite food is french fries, so I was happy to accommodate her taste buds. We added another of her favorites, hamburgers, along with some chicken, jello, and fruit salad. All the kids cleaned their plates and everyone asked why I don't serve that for Sunday dinner more often. After dinner all the kids helped me decorate her butterfly cake.

She's had quite a crowd trying to help her, but managed to open her presents with just a little help from her mom. I found it very difficult to get in to take any pictures.

Jocelyn made her a little dress and matching hair clip, then decided at the last minute to sew one for Kacy too.

The Chicken-Coop has a Roof

In our effort to be self-sufficient, David decided we needed some chickens, so here's the fruition of his plan. I guess it should really be called an aviary, since one section will also hold Oscar's lovebirds. Anyway, progress has been made and it should be done by the end of the month. The chicks have been ordered and will arrive the first part of April (in time for Easter). As well as providing some eggs, we hope the chickens will be fun for the grand kids and do away with some pesky summertime bugs. Ryan thinks they are going to eat up all their neighbors, the bees, who reside next door to the coop. We'll see. Those who want eggs, come over in September.

The Pass-a-long Car

Several years ago Oscar's sister was given a car. She was a student and used it to go to school and work. After awhile, it developed some mechanical problem, so she passed it along to Oscar , thinking he might be able to fix it, and bought a new one. Oscar didn't really need it, so he parked it in David's "bone" yard. One day we saw it parked in front of a house several neighborhoods to the west of us. A tire had been slashed and it was dirty. Apparently, it had been stolen and the thief ditched it when he discovered the mechanical problem. The police couldn't acquire any usable fingerprints. It had been parked there for two weeks, according to the owner of the house, and we hadn't noticed it was missing. We drove it home, cleaned it up and David fixed it. About that time, my dad had some medical problems and I found myself driving to the hospital a lot and then transporting my dad to re-hab and physical therapy and much later I went back and forth to the nursing home. It got great gas mileage, was easy to get him in and out of, and was very dependable. It was a blessing, saving me a lot of money and trouble. After dad passed away, the air conditioning went out and it was summer, so we parked it. That was over five years ago. I got the Jeep. A few weeks ago David put in a new battery, installed new tires and passed it along to someone else.