4/52 Game Faces

For those of you who know us, you know we can be kinda ridiculous at times.....well, let me rephrase that, Geoff can be kinda ridiculous.

I was trying to take a nice picture and this is what I have to deal with.......

Yes, Geoff is wearing a hockey jersey with the Canadian flag on it. TRAITOR.

Granted, this isn't my favorite photo of myself since I was trying to take the picture and get us both in frame, so I have kinda a weird expression, but it was just too good not to post. haha :D

We were given tickets to the Winterhawks game from Geoff's aunt Judi for Christmas and had a blast.

(Also, before I forget, THANKS JUDI!)

Geoff has a bit of a head cold (if you ask him he's dying) but we couldn't turn down the game. We had awesome seats --- practically right on the ice --- the Hawks won in overtime, and we got to enjoy getting out of the house. Yes, getting out of the house is a big thing for us. Don't make a big thing out of it.

Yes, this is very blurry. Geoff sucks.

Who knows what next week will bring. I'm co-hosting my sister Lori's baby shower so I'm sure there will be lots of photos from that. It will be pretty legendary (make sure you say "lengendary" like this)

Oh, and don't be disappointed when Geoff lies to you and say's we'll do a picture before the weekend because we all know that won't likely happen. Especially since Geoff and I barely see each other during the week, and when I do see him he's asleep.

What can I say, we keep the flame alive.

In hopes that St. Þvörusleikir soon will be there

It's Christmas-time in the Rappinger house and while Katie has been decking the halls and hanging her stockings by the chimney with care, Geoff is thinking of spicing things up a little bit.

I recently met a woman from Sweden who regaled me with the traditional Christmas celebrations of her home, and it got him thinking: Whose to say that our Christmas traditions are the right ones?

Whose to say that somewhere in the world the idea of a large bearded man keeping constant tabs on young children and sneaks into their homes in the middle of the night to leave them tokens of his affection isn't considered ODD?

So next year, I think, we should celebrate an Icelandic Christmas.

See in Iceland there’s no such thing as Santa. Instead there are 13 troll-like creatures called “The Yule Lads" (seriously, I’m not making this up)

The Yule Lads are small creatures that attack the homes of all 350,000 Icelandians by stealing bowls of porridge and sausage and pretty much everything else.

See the Lads invade on Dec. 12 one at a time until Christmas day and (in ancient times) were said to STEAL CHILDREN WHO WERE TOO POOR TO AFFORD NEW CLOTHES.

Back in the day, I guess, new clothes were a reward for being a good child.

Nowadays, though, with Santa spreading the Christmas cheer across the globe the Lads have had to take a more child-friendly (read: non-kidnapping) approach to the holidays.

These days the Yule lads still steal sheep and whatever, but they also leave gifts in shoes left on the windowsill. If the kid finds himself on the Icelandic “naughty” list they might get a raw potato instead of a lump of coal.

The Lads are mostly single minded. Almost all of them have a never ending hunger for table scraps that they grab in various ways.

There is.... 

Stekkjastaur, the Sheep Cote Clod has two peg legs and 
steals sheep to drink their milk... (Again, I swear 
I am not making any of this up)

The second is Giljagaur, The Gully Gawk. 
He sneaks into the barn and drinks the froth 
off the pails of milk (That. Is. Gross.)

 And then there's Shorty, a.k.a. Stúfur. This is the 

smallest of them all, and he scraps the scraps of 

food off pans in the kitchen.

Þvörusleikir, the Spoon-licker steals the used wooden spoons 
from the kitchen and licks all 
the food off of them.

Likewise Pottasleikir the Pot-licker goes for the dirty 

pots and pans and licks the scraps off of them. 

Askasleikir, the Bowl-licker takes a different approach. He hides under 
people's beds and waits for you to finish with your midnight snack, 
then he grabs the bowl from off the floor and licks it clean. (I'm starting 
to sense a pattern here...)

Apparently not content with stealing table scraps, 
Hurðaskellir (the door slammer) 
spends his days slamming doors and 
keeping people awake all night.

Skyr is a popular milk curd/yogarty food that Icelandics seem to enjoy, 

and Skyr-Gobbler (Skyrgámur) sneaks into the pantries and cupboards 

of families and raids the skyr stash for a midnight snack.

As you might guess from the drawing, Bjúgnakrækir, the sausage 

swiper loves him some meat and steals as much of it as he can get.

By far one of the creepiest of the Lads, The Window Peeper  
Gluggagægir is pretty self explanatory, he creepily sits 
outside your window and watches everything you do, looking 
for things to steal for himself.

Then there's my favorite. Known as Gáttaþefur The

Door Sniffer this big schnauzed individual can smell 

cake from a mile away and will snatch one or two

for himself.

Then there's Ketkrókur Meat Hook comes to take his own prize. 
Like the Sausage Swiper Meat Hook loves meat and uses a gnarly 
hook to grab meat from the roof.

And then there's the last of the Lads. By far the most pathetic of 

them the Candle Beggar Kertasníkir isn't mean like the Door 

Slammer or hungry like most of the others, he just wants a 

candle to see. Is that so wrong?

Now, before you start naysaying with cries that these are LAME Christmas elves to be worshipping, I should mention that since the 13 Lads arrive one at a time each day before Christmas, Icelandic children traditionally receive 13 presents on Christmas, one from each Lad.

So whose with me? It’s a bit late now, but what say we get together Christmas 2011 and line the shoes on the windowsill for some goodies from Þvörusleikir, Skyrgámur and Ketkrókur?

Sounds like a plan to me!

So, from all of us here at Life as a Rappinger, Merry Jól, everyone and have a happy New Nýársdagur!

C is for Christmas

Every year Katie's family gets together during Christmastime to make cookies.

 

There's about a dozen members of the family who get together every year. They each bring some cookie dough and frosting and spend a few hours just shooting the breeze and making cookies.

I'm not sure how many cookies they make at one of these get-togethers, but I'd venture they make about 160 pounds of cookie.

See what I mean?

It's a fun little tradition which usually involves everyone standing around and chatting while three people actually MAKE the cookies.
 

I demand cookies. Now.

It also lets us hang out with some family members that we don't see every day. Like this little one.

"Hmmm... I think I need more fuzzy balls on my sweater."

Once the cookies are baked then everyone starts to decorate them.

Megan is a firm believer in the "superglue" theory of cookie decoration.

It's a tradition that mostly involves the women-folk and --- as usual --- I was the only gentleman to partake.

Multi-colored frosting is a must, and everyone has their own thoughts on what makes a quality cookie.

I first considered the "Jackson Pollock" approach to decorating...

But in the end settled for Winnie the Cookie, although some at the party said it was actually an L.A. Lakers bear

*GEOFF'S NOTE:  THIS IS WRONG.

Others opted to make  UO Duck Santa Ghost...thing.

Needless to say, I have about 80 pounds of cookie sitting on my counter if anyone wants to come over and savor some frosting and sugar cookie.

Come on, don't they look delicious?

VIDEO: Zoo Lights 2010

A couple of weeks ago Katie and I went to Zoo Lights at the Oregon Zoo. A bunch of zoos across the country do something similar, but essentially they put a gazillion Christmas lights up around the zoo and you wander around after hours and enjoy.

It's something my family has always made a habit of going to every year, and Katie was always forced to sing Christmas carols at Zoo Lights in high school.

This year it was Katie's niece who was singing and we went and watched her perform. It was a fun time and I've managed over the last few weeks to string together enough time to make this: It's a short video I threw together of the performance and some lights.

Just to be clear, I didn't shoot this using my normal Nikon D60, I used this:

Also, this was taken with our super sweet new 35mm lens, but more on that later...

It's an old Canon Powershoot A710. They don't make these anymore, so the video quality isn't exactly going to be in HD, nor is the sound.

But I had fun, so suck it.

Oh, and Merry Christmas.