On the Saturday night before Christmas, Gimletblog HQ received a special guest. Santa has paid us an early house call ever since Thing One’s first Christmas. Thing One has always been okay with the jolly old elf, and we wondered if Thing Two’s fondness for soft things (i.e. Santa’s suit) would win out over his stranger anxiety (i.e. Santa), but in the end he reacted pretty much as we thought he would (i.e. he howled). The rest of us had fun, and Thing Two recovered his good spirits once Santa made his departure. Santa has long been a friend of our family and we look forward to his visit every year. The Christmas album in the gallery has several more photos.

For our family Christmas Eve party both boys wore traditional Norwegian festdrakter (everyday or “fantasy” costumes often worn by children, different from a region-specific bunad), and they looked very dashing if I do say so myself. Earlier in the year Thing Two had received a handmade festdrakt from one of Grandma’s cousins in Norway and we were able to find and purchase a costume for Thing One. I was able to wear a family bunad for Christmas when I was Thing One’s age so it was fun to see our boys all dressed up.

See the Husfliden web site (click the English Version link on the far right) for pictures of over eighty different bunads from all over Norway, and the jewelry and other ornaments worn with them. The West Telemark bunad I wore didn’t look exactly like the one pictured on Husfliden’s web site, but it was very close — perhaps a little girl’s costume is different from the grownup version.

We hope you and your families have had a joyous season, celebrating your own special holiday traditions, and wish you the best in the coming year!

Since our last posting I finished framing the stairs and the wall in the laundry room. I have two half walls to finish framing in the work room and the laundry room. However, I ran out of lumber and decided to take care of a few other items. With the wall framed in the laundry room, I was able to move the washer and dryer next to each other. Moving the appliances is the easy part. Getting the water, drain and electrical in place is the difficult part. | …continue reading Basement, part three: A little bit of everything

I’m sending NR out into the world again, this time to the Moondance International Film Festival in Boulder, Colorado. December 31 is the early bird deadline; all submissions are due by April. Last year the semi-finalists and finalists were announced in May and the winners were announced at the festival in June. Moondance’s mission, as per their web site:

Moondance promotes, encourages, educates and rewards non-violent conflict resolution in writing, the theatre arts & film. Moondance also promises to raise awareness of the invaluable contributions of women to the entertainment community, and to encourage environmental conservation & protection.

Wish me luck — I could use some.

They’re still about a year away from their Masterpiece Theatre broadcast dates, but three new Jane Austen adaptations will debut on the UK’s ITV-1 some time this winter. ITV has not announced specific dates, but the managers for the estate at which Mansfield Park was filmed were told March. Masterpiece Theatre will show these films in the USA in November along with the BBC’s new Sense and Sensibility. AustenBlog has all kinds of news and links pertaining to the films and my web site is the home of the unofficial Northanger Abbey press room and cast gallery. And at long last, a winter preview trailer is up on YouTube. Follow the jump to see a few still images from the trailer accompanied by my commentary, most of which is devoted to dissecting the Northanger Abbey teaser. | …continue reading A closer look at the 2007 Austen adaptations

This is just a quick note to let family and friends know that we have weathered our wind storm quite well, all things considered. Our neighborhood, along with most of the city, is without power, and several trees are down, but thankfully no trees hit our house. Last night, when we learned the storm was coming, we hurried to get all the lumber, insulation, and other materials into the house (feeling quite a bit like Ma & Pa hurrying to get the hay in before the cyclone), and managed to get about half of it stored before the power went out. After finding our flashlights we were able to finish the job. Grandma and Grandpa have power, so we’re camping out with them for the time being, and hoping our power is restored this evening. Check out the gallery to see photos of downed trees and damage around our neighborhood.

ETA: We’re happy to report that the lights (and heat!) came back on late this afternoon. Most of the trees have been removed from the streets in our neighborhood as well, but there is still a lot of debris to contend with.

Today’s local paper features a photo essay by Erika Schultz of holiday images around the city. How could I have lived here this long without knowing that the Ivar’s dancing clams were available for seasonal photo ops?

Ivar’s, the institution responsible for this silliness, is one of those old-school Seattle experiences. We usually finish our trips to the aquarium with a walk up to Pier 54 for some chowder and fish and chips (Thing One and any visiting cousins love to feed the seagulls). In our experience, the Salmon House has been a fun place to take our tourists (try to get a table with a view of the lake and downtown). It’s also a good “first restaurant” for kids who are ready to graduate from takeout — it can be a little noisier than other places and Ivar’s doesn’t take itself too seriously; after all, they have a reputation to uphold.

Amidst the other traditions of the season, a trip to the waterfront is definitely in order. Thing Two versus a giant clam? You know you want to see it.

The Gimlet is away on another one of his business trips so Team Gimlet is taking a break from home improvement and getting ready for the holidays. This year Thing One was a great help trimming the Christmas tree. It doesn’t have a particular decorating theme; I collect ornaments from places we’ve visited, or with some family significance, or just ones I think are neat. Every year when we unwrap the ornaments we have fun remembering where they came from or who gave them to us. Last year Thing Two was too small to notice much, but this year he loves the Christmas tree. Anticipating that we put a few sturdy ornaments — mostly Norwegian pewter, but also some sturdy wooden ones (more Norwegian, but also Swedish and Danish) — in his reach. The more fragile decorations have been slowly climbing up the tree.

Saturday afternoon the home improvement store delivery truck delivered lumber and insulation for the next phase of our basement remodeling project. One of the delivery men asked if Thing One would like to pull the air horn on the truck. Thing One was very excited to do it. Thing Two does not like loud noises and started to cry.

The first task in the plan was to fix the stair case. Monday after work I pulled out the 1×10 boards out of the wood pile and cut them to fit as risers. I glued the risers in place and then used screws to tie the risers to the treads from underneath and above. Screws on either side of the riser finished it up. I continued until I ran out of screws. I thought I would run to the store to buy more, until I looked outside and saw ice on the roads. | …continue reading Basement, part two: Stairs and framing