Daddy loves Christmas...

I love Christmas. And with the birth of Emily, I made it my mission this year (like most years) to infect my enthusiasm for all things Christmas into T. I reckon that if I keep elfing away then by the time Emily is old enough to appreciate Christmas then T will be able to play Mother to my Father Christmas and our house will be Christmas-tastic for most of December.

Daddy loves Christmas...

This year started off in the usual fashion with a wee nip and shortbread being expectantly left out for Santa (plus carrot for the reindeer), following an evening of excited monitoring of his progress courtesy of NORAD. I normally can't sleep till I know he is at least safely over Europe somewhere, so after seeing Rome's presents safely delivered, I decided to turn in. 

Next morning came and went -  and once again I got no presents at all from Santa, allegedly on account of some bad behaviour sometime in June (how does he know?) - but lots of nice presents from my lovely wife and daughter. Unsurprisingly it also appeared that 'goody two shoes' T had seemingly been angelic enough to again earn herself a sackful, whilst Emily was obviously too young, as a full years behaviour record is required before you can expect a full delivery.

T reaping the rewards of another mannerly year

The morning's Santa disappointment over, but Christmas was still very much in the air, and so we were soon packed and heading over to the east, following yonder star to reach North Berwick. The Gurney's had laid on a magnificent spread for us which saw the table creaking as we tucked into a gorgeous turkey...

John controversially chose Christmas to introduce his new bird

Christmas feast Gurney style
 

The days feasting over and we settled down to open more presents with the girls playing Santa so I didn't feel totally devoid of his visit. Then it was great conversation, fun and family time, plus some Skype calls to those further away, to see our Chrstmas day to a lovely conclusion.

Abbie Christmas everyone

Christmas contemplations...

The following days saw the usual eating of more turkey, chocolates and mince pies than is good for us (but not necessarily all together), and trying to walk off the excesses this causes by enjoying the bracing Scottish winter and heading up The Law for Emily's second hill climb, as well as a grand old family trip to the beach. A big thank you to the Gurney's for their wonderful hospitality and making it such a special Christmas time for all of us.

Admiring the view from The Law

The twins and their daughters

A bracing Merry Christmas from the Gediks, Gurneys and Rookes!
 

It's Christmas!!

To all our dear friends and family,

Wishing you a very lovely Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year.

All our love

Tanya, Nigel and Emily xxx

Baba Snr is 70 and Baba Jnr is 169...

The weekend before last saw a heavenly host of Gurney's and Gediks descending on us. This was in honour of Baba Gedik's 70th and was an opportunity to spend some lovely time together, and for Emily to experience her first family gathering. As usual much food was consumed, much laughter had, and a genuinely lovely time was had by all. 

Clan Gedik, Gurney and Rooke

It was also a brief introduction to what delights we have to look forward to. The youngest Gurney's (Abbie - almost 4 and Rosie -  6), and the youngest Gedik (Dylan - 18 months), proceeded to create absolute chaos within a matter of minutes of being together. With every toy out of it's home and objects flying across the lounge, I resigned myself to the carnage and took solace in the fact I had just renewed our contents insurance to cover all eventualities. Baba Snr and Baba Jnr (the oldest and youngest in the family) took a more relaxed approach and managed somehow to sleep through the mayhem...

Emily teaching Baba her favourite activity

As you will know by now, our lovely daughter spends much time asleep. My early theory that compared her to animals at the top of the food chain (see post on Dad and Daughter time...) seems to still be bourne out by her second favourite activity, food. Like the rest of her family our supreme being is one for the grub and has been piling on the pounds like there is no tomorrow.

Born at 7lb 2oz, 5 weeks later and Emily has put on 55oz to total 10lb 9oz or 169oz to be precise (hence this posts title). 55 oz in 35 days is pretty impressive - that's about 3/4 of a Snickers bar every day or a total weight gain of about 27 Snickers bars in 5 weeks. Now I know T has a love of chocolate but feeding our baby Snickers bars? That's just plain wrong...

Anyway our little feeding machine seems perfectly happy with her new regimen of sleep and milk so we can't complain too much - just wish I could have bottled that new born baby look for ever. Still, she's now waking up to the world and becoming aware of things just in time for Christmas...hopefully she hasn't grasped the 'present' concept yet though or she might be sorely disappointed!

Growing up far too fast... 

A climb of contrivance...

Last weekend saw a break in the stormy weather. I took this to mean a good opportunity to start the winter climbing season with an attempt on the north face of Conic Hill. Mummy appeared less full of enthusiasm for my idea, arguing that at 4 weeks old and with a temperature of zero degrees, that this wasn't exactly the perfect time to introduce our precious daughter to the finer points of Scottish hillwalking. Unfazed by this irrefutable logic, I announced that the supreme being was clearly giving her tacit consent to my plan by sleeping through the proceedings. The details of my argument were being somewhat lost on Mummy, so I was forced to agree to a gentle walk round the loch instead. (Little did Mummy know however, that given I was the only one that knew where we were going, some skillful navigation might just see a summit attempt before the day was out). 

And so off we headed to Balmaha, with Mummy realising only half way there that this was actually an entirely different place to Balloch. This boded well for my sneaky navigational plan as Mummy's sense of direction seemed to be on its usual top form. Striding out in glorious sun we headed off "round the loch", Emily contributing as normal by being fast asleep within seconds in the sling.

Delighted at the discovery we could still find the daughter amongst the blankets

Mummy catching the rays

As the weather seemed set to be absolutely stunning I thought I would now seize the day and suggest taking "that path over there for a change". A few hundred feet of ascent later, Mummy was still absorbed in the views and none the wiser as to where we might be heading, and so I pressed on for Emily's first summit. 

The views got better and better

Emily knocked out by the beauty of it all

Three quarters of the way up Conic Hill and I felt totally elated at sharing this experience with my daughter. Emily was as usual sleeping through it all, but for me standing up there was my favourite Dad-Daughter first so far. Mummy by now had cottoned on to my scheme but had taken it all in good spirit and was now sensibly pointing out that it was getting a little chilly. Whilst not quite making the top of Conic Hill due to a genuine fear of slipping on the ice, we had now been walking for a couple of hours, and so we called it time and headed back. A simply amazing day out was topped off by Mummy suggesting that we stopped at the local hostelry, insisting something sweet and sugary would do wonders to boost her milk supplies...
 

A beautiful reminder of my first hillclimb with my daughter