The Gribbles Go to Iceland!

As many of you know, Dave has been working in Norway quite a bit this year. His project there is winding down, and he was thinking about going back during the Christmas holiday. We thought that if he was going to be away for Christmas, it might be nice for the kids and me to meet him in Norway during their school holiday. Then he pointed out that it’s a much shorter trip to get to Iceland—Icelandair flies nonstop from Denver to Reykjavík. We talked quite a bit about taking that trip, even looking into flights. However, Phoebe was signed up to be the lector at church on Christmas Eve, and she really wanted to be home for that. Both kids wanted to be home on Christmas Day, and they wanted Dave to be there too. Plus, we have tickets to The Lion King in Denver on December 31 (rescheduled from a Valentine’s Day purchase in 2020—though it’s likely to be canceled). The time frame for a trip felt narrow, and we thought about revisiting it in the spring.

Just a couple weeks before the holiday, Dave decided to travel back to Norway in February instead of December, so it looked like the Iceland trip was off. I’d gotten kind of excited about the idea, though, and we eventually said “what if we just go?” We’d been thinking about traveling on Friday, December 17, Benjamin’s last day of school (Phoebe had finished all of her exams and had the day off), and coming back on Thursday, December 23, to be home in time for Christmas Eve. It turned out that the flights were half as expensive if we returned on Tuesday, so our schedule was set. Dave, our world traveler, took care of all the details, planning an itinerary, making sure we were in compliance with all of the COVID regulations, and booking hotels and a rental car. I made sure we had warm hats, gloves, and snacks for the plane.

For those of you who think our Christmas letter is nice but way too wordy, I’m flipping the script and showing mostly photos in the next few posts. Enjoy!