I did it! I ACED the baking thing last night! Baking cookies, and not just any cookies, oh no. Sara Bernhard cookies. Those of you who know will Understand. Those of you who don’t – well, let me just say that they are arguably the most scrumptious culinary inventions ever and if you haven’t tasted them yet, you haven’t lived. Meringue cookie bottom, a lurrvely light and fluffy mousse-type of cream, all topped with a semi-sweet chocolate coating, Yum!

Readers who have just joined us may or may not know that, in Iceland, cookie baking is the barometer of pre-Christmas domestic excellence. And those who have been reading a while will also know that Yours Truly is slightly challenged in the cookie-baking department. Which is why I am so delighted to report that I’ve now officially passed this particular True-Icelander hurdle with flying colours. For Sara Bernhard cookies are a bitch to construct. First you have to make the cookie bits and bake them, then the lurrvely fluffy cream which is applied to the cookie bits, and finally cover the whole shebang (shebang?) with melted chocolate that must be the exact right temperature so that it neither runs right off the cookie nor is so thick that it obliterates all else.

AAH cajoled me into it, once again. Yet unlike in so many previous years she actually held out for the full three-hours-plus of cookie construction. Perhaps it’s the age – she’s passed the golden threshold into adolescence – or perhaps it’s thanks to the post a few days ago in which I described how she used to wimp out on me as soon as the going got rough. (Was anyone talking shameless manipulation in this space, hm?) In any case, this was truly a case of mother-daughter Quality Time and thus a cause for celebration on all fronts, really.

AND TODAY’S YULE LAD IS…

The oh-so irritating Hurðaskellir – Door Slammer. He liked to slam doors whenever he spotted an opportunity. (Cynics like me would say it was just the Icelandic wind – but hey, whatever gets you through the winter…) Only three more days until the winter solstice (phew!) and only six more to Christmas (yikes! Panic attack!).

AS FOR THE WEATHER

It snowed last night! Everything’s covered in pretty Christmas-y white. Today the weatherman promises winds from the south, 5-10 metres a second (bearable, just) and temps to –15 degrees. Sunrise was at 11.20; sunset is at 15.29.