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!
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 30th, 2006 at 12:02am
and is filed under family, surf.
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