The great big MERRY CHRISTMAS (and happy New Year!) thread!

[trigz]

I'll start off: Merry christmas and a happy new year to the bunch of you! Anyone doing anything special for christmas? For my part it will consist of spending a few days with my inlaws in the wonderful little city of Gjøvik. Oh, and getting pissed on New year's eve! Yiippee!

[Kamika]

1. Same to you!!

Merry christmas :)

Just where is this gjvik?

[trigz]

3. Hi there

Gjøvik is a great but bloody cold little city 120 kilometres north of capital city Oslo where I live. Get yourself a map of Norway, find the principal Norwegian lake (it's called Mjøsa), and there's Gjøvik right next to it. I love the place, even if it's full of peasants, he-he!

[DianeK]

2. merry christmas and happy new year to you!

and to all DUers! I will have a ton of people here from all sides of the family, as well as non family members. My husband's family just moved here (northern vermont) from Norway so will be more than the usual crowd

[trigz]

4. And to you!

Which part of Norway is your husband's family from?

[DianeK]

6. Oslo

my husband was born there and until very recently, his sister and mom lived in Oslo

[trigz]

10. Wicked! Where in Oslo?

Tell your husband I'm from Bøler, but can't stand Vålerenga. Instead, I'm a Lillestrøm SK fanatic. That'll piss him off no end (well, if he is an Oslo person who likes football)! ;)

[DianeK]

11. he actually didn't live there very long...

came over to the states when he was but a toddler...then went back for a month long christmas vacation when he was an adolescent..but his mom went back to live and had been there for years until recently...not sure about the different areas of oslo and not sure he is either...he does not speak the language but his mom and sister sometimes forget that we don't understand it and chatter in that sing songy norweigian language to us, to each other, and to others

[moof]

5. Happy Holidays, Winter Solstice & Festivus

To All Human Beings Everywhere.

[Rainbowreflect]

7. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to you!

For Christmas I want peace on earth, a cure for cancer, an end to hunger & a puppy.
The new year is going to start out right for me. I'm taking vacation from December 27 - January 4. Yeah!

[markus]

8. Is this same city that was a jumping off point for polar expeditions?

I'm a great fan of the literature of polar exploration, having moved from a warm, sub-tropical climate to Fargo, North Dakota. I'm probably one of the few Americans who, visiting the Epcot center Norway exhibit, actually have a clue why there is a huge mural of a ship frozen in the ice.

Was it Gjøvik from which Admunsen left on list last voyage and was lost? Or is my memory faulty?

[nuxvomica]

9. My whole family gets together for Christmas

And we have two fairly new traditions: we make the presents we give to each other instead of buying them and on Christmas Eve most of us go out to the movies to see the latest "Lord of the Rings" movie. This year because its been so busy at work all year I've had to postpone my vacation time so I'm off starting this Friday and I don't return till the first Monday of 2004 (AKA: The Year of the Democrats).
Life, sometimes, is good!