A first time for everything

This year will be the first time in my life that I've ever spent christmastime away from home!!

Tomorrow we're off to a cottage in the Wye valley on the S Wales/England border. I'll be taking my camera.....

Who else is doing something different for Christmas this year?

Have fun.

Well, we are actually contemplating having Hamburgers from the Sonic for Christmas Dinner ... LOL! No one wants to cook, or serve or clean. If we go thru with it, it'll be a first. ;-)

We prolly won't.

Cheri'

Not this year but I would like to have a First Time Christmas in Hawaii sometime....Girl's allowed to dream right?


Hope you have a nice one Philomel...

Thanks HoniBee, you too!

That's an interesting idea Cheri'. Don't think there'd be any takers in our household :P
Enjoy whatever you choose :)

I'd like to join you with the Hawaii one - sounds very good
.......and you groovy

Have a great adventurous Christmas, Phil!

Hilary, you are in for such a treat! I hope you take some pictures that I can just morph into so I can be there too.

We are going to bar-b-que steaks and shish-ka-bobs of vegies for Christmas. We don't care what the weather is we are doing it. lol Our luck it will be snowing or raining HARD.

Mom will also be here at our house for Christmas and we have several movies picked out for that day so we can keep her amused.

That sounds fun Pond - though I'd pass on the heavy rain! Might put the barbie out :(

Thanks Weez - you too ;)
I couldn't believe my eyes when Seward popped up on a holiday prog on the TV the other day - was going to write and tell you, but you know what it's like this time of the year!
I came in part way through and it wasn't a long piece, but it was great to see.

Have a lovely Christmas everyone

We are going to spend the Christmas with my grandparents, my cousin might also come there. They live some 100 km from us in SW Finland, last time I was there on Christmas was five years ago. Somehow I like better spending Christmas at home though, but "vaihtelu virkistää" as the saying goes ;)

Have a good time
Haven't time to look up the translation - I'm just leaving :)

I've always wanted to go to Alcapulco for Christmas. I had a friend that her and her family used to always go there for the Holidays and said that they put on a wonderful celbration of Christmas. Has anyone been there for Christmas and if so, what was it like.

Evert, I only know one Finnish word... SISU, to you and yours ! HAHAHA. Does that word apply? What's the translation of the others you used?? ;)
Blessings, Pambi 8^)

Oh, yeah... a FIRST for this year???
SPENDING CHRISTMAS WITH OUR GRAND-DAUGHTERS !!!!!!
Definitely a first... they've just recently moved back to TX, and older one is 10... sniff.
Been a long wait :)
Blessings, Pambi 8^)

Hi Pambi, nice to meet you and know that you know a word of Finnish - Not too many does ;)

Sisu means strenght and ability to work hard even if things wouldn't go the way you wanted etc. I would translate it somehow like that :}

"Vaihtelu virkistää" is actually pretty hard to translate. It means that "doing something in a new way is always better than doing it the same old way".

You're probably laughing at my goofy explanations x)

Evert, Wow that is a long translation but meaningful saying. I would have a very hard time to remember it though unless I spoke it every day for a long time. This old brain doesn't work very well.

Hilary, we have a very large oak tree that really keeps the patio pretty free of rain even if it is pouring. LOVE THAT TREE. lol btw, it is an English Oak. lol

I got several more bathouses up this week and sure hope they get some bats in them this year. Can hardly wait for the mosquito control to begin. g

I wish we could go to Hawaii for Christmas and see my dear Godmother who I haven't seen for 40 years. I was born there and have never been back since I was a child. Rightfully she almost never leaves there.

Alcapulco sounds like fun for Christmas. I have a friend who was there one year and she said it was great.

Pambi, you will have a great Christmas with your GD's. I can hardly wait till I can spoil mine and send them home. lol ( Our son isn't even married yet and no prospects either. lol)

Well, just being well is so important this year with the flu infecting everyone in my spousal unit's extended family. But there is new Chinese restaurant opened in town and they are having a Christmas buffet so that's what I'm doing. We missed our family's big family gathering because both of us had the flu and I am just going back to work today for the first time, still hacking a bit.
Chinese food for Christmas should be really different, eh?

I sold my home of 50 years in Miami and moved "north" to Fort Pierce. This will be my first Christmas not in that house. So....I now have a lovely fiber-optic tree on the TV instead of an 8 Ft. real tree, I have a few of my treasured decorations placed about and lots of Egg Nog and fruitcake. The family gathered yesterday (35 in all) for Christmas dinner. On Christmas Day my best friend, my son, daughter and SIL will go to a wonderful Tai resturant and make our toast with Plum wine. I love EVERT's translation of her language, so, Vaihtelu Virkistaa!!!!!
Pati

We don't have any relatives within a thousand miles, so we don't have any mandatory requirements to stay around here for Christmas. In the past, a couple times we have gone to Pismo Beach for a couple days and have left on Christmas day. It is a nice day for driving. This year we are staying home, but we are going to have lasagne for Christmas dinner. I would imagine that is nontraditional, but I like that better than most anything else. (Yeah, melted cheese! Ahhh...... :-)

HIS language ;)

:D

Evert, we have always kept you so girlish;)

Yeah.. :D

OOOOH, is my face red! Sorry 'bout that.
Pati

Nu problem ;)

I didn't get to go to any of the Christmas gatherings, not even my husband's large extended family's. I have now had the flu for 2 weeks. I went back to work part-time this week but I am exhausted. The party I hated missing the most was the historical society's at the National Register of Historic Places landmark that I have been involved with since 1987. I was even one of the organizers! Grrrrrr. However, we did manage to get up to my son's house on Christmas Day for a couple of hours. We ate and watched Nemo.

Hi WOODS, Sorry about your flue. What landmark are you involved in? Buncombe/Henderson/Transylvania is where I grew up and I do family genealogy in that area. VERY interesting history in Transy, and now that "Cold Mountain" has opened in the theaters more people will realize how beautiful it is, even if it was filmed in Romania! I saw it yesterday and was impressed with the similarities in the landscape.
Pati

Well I enjoy the family gathering and all the ruckus and not so much the mess but the grand kids are the best with their little smiling happy faces. I made my husband order pizza and fries yesterday because I told him that's it for cooking this year, LOL! Today is our anniversary 19 yrs. so no cooking today either, I'm wondering if I'll be able to get away w/this until next year! Denise

Try hard Denise and it might become a habit to go out or order in. Just think, no dishes ever! lol

Lani

pati, It is the Allison-Deaver House which is near the entrance to Pisgah National Forest in the community of Pisgah Forest, near Brevard. It is the oldest frame house in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC. We were able to save it 2 days(!) before a bulldozer took it down to make way for a shopping center. The shopping center still went in, but the house on one side and its 3.474 acres are up on a hill and heavily wooded and protected into perpetuity.
It's interesting that you are researching geneology. I am the chairwoman of the Transylvania County Archives. We have over 400,000 items including several excellent photo collections beginning about 1870 or earlier. We have a lot of family histories too and get a lot of researchers like you. Maybe you can visit sometime when you are back up this way. Just contact me at archives@citcom.net
Be sure to use your DG identity too.....

Hi Woods,
I thought that might be the house! I have E-mailed you, but with all the talk about the movie "Cold Mountain" I thought I would post the web-cam site so anyone who is interested can see the "real" Cold Mountain the book was written about.
Pati


http://webcam.srs.fs.fed.us/

Lots of interesting and different things!

Thanks for the translation Evert - great sentiment!
Love the sound of that english oak tree Lani

You've got a point with Christmas day being a good day for driving Kelli. Not so many people about - and hopefully those that are are full of Christmas spirit (NOT spirits lol)

Hope you're better now woodspirit. I had a bad cold, but managed to carry on regardless - so it wasn't flu in my case! I just gave an extra and unwelcome present to some of the others :(

I'd love to find the time to get more into history and genealogy - my brother's done loads. Very interesting sites thanks

I've put some photos from the holiday in Photo Forum http://davesgarden.com/t/412602/

What's interesting is that their is another Cold Mountain just south of the one you posted on the Transylvania County/Jackson County line and I thought that was the one in the movie. I can see it from my deck. But just north of it, in Haywood County is the one you posted and it is the Cold Mountain of the book, even though Brevard was mentioned in the book. I have a picture of a hunting lodge on Cold Mountain that I will bring home and post for everyone...