---------------------------------------- five questions (dec 2021) December 06th, 2021 ---------------------------------------- 1. How far in advance do you like to start planning things? This is quite variable. Speeches and presentations that don't require slides? Those I prefer to work on very briefly before I have to perform. The over-prep and dwelling on it increases my stress and doesn't make the delivery any better. But if I'm prepping a larger project or something that requires lots of pre-work, steps, 3rd parties, etc, then I try to get that done and out of the way as early as possible. For instance, my trip to visit family in the states next year is already arranged and everything booked except the plane tickets (since prices are time dependent). 2. What do you hope happens in 2022? I would really love it if the vaccination levels across the globe help us bring COVID to a long-term managable level that doesn't result in waves of hospitalizations and deaths. The cascading effects of that would be huge and wonderful. I also hope 2022 brings some nice moments with the family. The kid is at a great age right now and I'm really enjoying all the time we get to spend together. 3. What challenges have you recently overcome? Hmm, I'm not sure. I've been fighting a sleep disorder recently and while it's not quite overcome, it's very close. I hope that wraps up soon. 4. Seasonal traditions you're most excited about I'm a big christmas music fan and listen to it year round, but especially on repeat during this season. It brings be happy memories and sets a wonderful festive mood in the home. It reminds me not to work too hard and to spend time with the family. We've adopted several Icelandic traditions and added them to our own family ones. We leave a shoe in the window for each of the Yule Lads as they come to visit leading up to Christmas. They are thirteen trolls that visit one-a-night on the days leading up to Christmas Eve. Each has his own personality and will usually leave a little treat in your shoe if you've been good. If not, you might find a rotten potato in there instead. Wit has a bit of a beef with Door-Slammer, but they're making up. Last year he left Wit fake cat poop in his shoe. What else? Hmm... We have our stockings and tree set up of course. I put the tree up and Leah and Wit do the decorating. Then I put the star on top and it's all set. Presents slowly appear day by day leading up to the big day. Santa is a big deal here still. Wit knows that the real Santa is not the guy he sees at the malls. We've explained that he lives in Finnish Lapland above the arctic circle, which is why people refer to his home as the North Pole. We've seen the videos of him at home with his reindeer pulling the sleigh. We've also discussed how different cultures celebrate on Christmas Eve vs Christmas day, meaning Santa has 2 full nights to travel the globe, plus time zones to take advantage of. With proper planning it's basically 3 days of activity to get it all done, and only in predominantely Christian areas. Not such a big deal as the stories make it seem. Wit also knows that Santa doesn't wrap his presents. He leaves them loose by the tree. Finally, we exchange books on christmas eve in the faux jólabókaflöð tradition. The term actually refers to the publishing industry going cray-cray and releasing everything at once here for the holiday rush, but somehow it got memed into this make-believe story about Icelandic Christmas Eve. In reality Icelanders open their presents on Christmas Eve, not just books. Still, we liked the idea of it and since we still open presents on Christmas day, that lets us do the book & chocolate celebration the day before. There's one other tradition here where people all go out for a big Christmas feast. It's usually done via work, but there's family groups and friends groups that go out as well. Restaurants have a special menu for it and seats book up in August. Sadly we've not been able to try this yet as it's been shut down the last two years due to COVID. 5. Are you good at directions and maps? Yeah, pretty good. I've got a great direction sense in the wild too, but I get turned around in cities.