The best of times...

It was the best of times and it was indeed a tale of two cities (well, towns actually - Kirkintilloch and North Berwick). But these were no Dickensian festivities, as Christmas and New Year this year was a truly wonderful time with some wonderful, wonderful family fun. And we are left feeling truly blessed.

In all senses we were catering for many different needs at Christmas, but from 4 to 84 (well, nearly 87 actually) we all accommodated each other and spent some lovely, lovely moments throughout the period. We started with 5 on the 22nd, but this rose to 9 on Christmas Eve, before peaking at 11 on the 27th, and then a slow departure back to the 3 of us by the 29th. It was a houseful, with a bellyful of laughter and a gutful of food for good measure. We ate, drank, sang, chatted, played games and generally made merry. We even ventured out in between the worst that Storm Barbara and Conor could throw at us. And the highlight? For me it was definitely Emily throwing aside my careful 'dad-planning' of Santa's descent to the garden, and whizzing round at top speed, sprinkling reindeer dust as fast as she could caper. The magic was definitely there in those precious moments, as was a tear in my eye.

 Chloe and Emily became inseparable (thanks Chloe)

 Jenny was on guitar

 Chloe on piano with the rest on voice and sleeping beauty in the corner

 And two Santa's appeared in a cardboard sleigh

 Obligatory sprout preparation

 Eyes firmly closed for full surprise effect

 This year's fashion essential

 The 'after eight' game

The 'full Christmas' 4.5 hour marathon commenced

And then barely did we catch our breath and it was off to North Berwick for the bells and another marathon in the 5 hour steak pie making - but boy was it good :-). The Gurney's had miraculously pulled their house together from their stunning house alterations just in time to allow me to go and drink John's whisky in what is now a highly salubrious environment. And it was again a time full of people, laughter, game playing and great food. From a select 5 on New Years Eve to a raucous 14 on New Year's Day, we had fun, fun, fun all the way. Thanks again to the Gurney's.

 Welcome indeed 2017

Lovely food in a new lovely living space

And now we're ready for the off again. The planning for Niomi's arrival has begun apace and within days she will be living with us. Please keep your fingers crossed for a smooth sailing over the next fortnight, but above all we hope you have a Happy New Year. 

May 2017 see the best of times come to you all...

One very excited big sister in waiting

Christmas comes early...

So if we thought that 2016 started with a bang with massive house alterations, it looks like 2017 is going to start with a huge KABOOM as the Children's Panel has just agreed the next stage of our adoption journey. Niomi is a wonderful little girl who is nearly 2 - and we just can't wait for her to be part of our lives. The process of her moving to us will start early in January, and she'll have fully moved to us by the middle of the month. I'll post more as we go on, but suffice to say for now, we are completely delighted at our early Christmas present - truly the best surprise ever 😊😊😊.

A very Merry Christmas to you all...N, T and E x

A Christmas angel...

My own wee Santa

Swapping roles to be Rudolf

Every year I try and do a Daddy/Daughter Christmas Day in the run up to the event itself. And this year's had a strict itinerary which got followed to the letter.

9.30am Shove Mummy out the door on a spa day, with instructions not to come back till late.

9.31am Cushion and blanket the lounge to make cosy/comfy seating and watch "The Polar Express".

11.12am Start making my Grandma's famous date krispie recipe with Emily. 

11.33am Head out to Lidl to do Christmas shop for the local foodbank. Slight jealous jelly incident with Emily, but other than that all purchases happily sent to a good cause.

12.23pm Lunch. Not much eaten as excitement building for afternoon's events.

12.34 to 1.23pm Jumping School and Cushion Attack.

1.24pm Head to train station ridiculously early as Supreme Being is intensely excited about trip to Glasgow. Promised that "it's OK to be early Daddy - we can play games". I'm not convinced.

1.31 to 1.51pm A very long 20 mins of eye-spy with 4 year old jumping up and down with excitement.

2.06 to 3.15pm Tour of festive market, spotting 2 ginormous Christmas trees and whizz round on the merry-go-round

Delight on the merry-go-round

3.15 to 4.06pm Theatre trip to see "The Night After Christmas" (highly recommended for 3-6 year olds). Massive snacking of mini-marshmallows throughout (don't tell Mummy) on account of poor lunch effort.

4.06 to 4.15pm Massive sprint across town with flagging 4 year-old on shoulders "Don't worry if we miss it Daddy, we can get the next one." (It was an hour to wait - too long for eye-spy). We made it - just.

4.37 to 6.02pm Chicken and chips - Emily's favourite. 

6.02 to 6.28pm "Daddy I'm sooo tired. Can I watch Peter Rabbit? Pleeeeeease". Of course.

6.28pm Storytime.

7.03pm Bed and sleep.

Daddy/Daughter Christmas Day done. Major success - celebratory bottle of beer drunk.

And then 5 days later, my little angel was an angel in the nursery nativity. Tear in eye at an oscar-winning performance. Wonderful. Boy am I excited about Christmas this year.

Vidoeclip: We wish you a Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone

The most wonderful time of the year...

As you know I LOVE Christmas. And our festivities are already well underway having started on the last weekend in November with the annual trip to buy the Christmas tree. It was a pretty tight schedule this year as the project where we go opened at 3pm, and we needed to be back for Kirkintilloch lights switch on at 5pm...plus we had to squeeze in some post tree buying mulled wine/mince pies with friends and neighbours. But we did it...well over 20ft of green needle clad joy was purchased by 3 families, plenty of stollen and mince pies consumed, plus a few mugs of warming spiced wine to give us a nice glow; and we still made the lights and subsequent fireworks with minutes to spare.

Emi doing her bit

Videoclip: Lights switch on!!

And then it really all began. The next day was Christmas tunes all day as stir-up Sunday meant the pudding got made with everyone having three wishes each (Emily was not content with one). And then it was a week of Christmas craft making and excited debate on Christmas, before December began with a bang as we decorated the house and brought light to the dark winter months. The festive season can just bring out so much joy and excitement if you can avoid the commercialism of it all.

We've done Victorian Santa, made masses of decorations including a brilliant 'stick' tree, started prepping and freezing lots of food, but most importantly, we've spent some wonderful time as a family just indulging our 'inner children' and our Supreme Being. It's brought a hearty glow to winter darkness and Emily really is getting into the full Christmas swing. The highlight for me so far was Emily meeting a wonderful Santa and Mrs Claus at our Victorian Christmas event. It was exactly as it should have been - just a lovely noncommercial and traditional experience. Last year Emily was terrified of Santa but now she's really starting to embrace his magical self...there's going to be one very excited Supreme Being by the time we get to Christmas Eve as there's lots more still to come!!

Stir-up Sunday

Videoclip: What happens at Christmas

Videoclip: Christmas deliveries

 The tree is up!

Emily, Santa and Mrs Claus

Jumping school...

On the plus side 4 year-olds are easy to entertain - any old nonsense game will do provided you are not fussed about rules (very arbitrary at present). The down side is though they have a very short attention span so you need lots and lots and lots of quick and easy ideas to keep them going.

Every weekday evening I am faced with this challenge. How to entertain an over-tired but full of food 4 year-old for a minimum of 30 mins before storytime. In summer it was easy - just run around the garden. But now, with the onset of winter, it has become much more tricky. And so...I invented Jumping School!

The first rule of Jumping School: You do not talk about Jumping School 

The second rule of Jumping School: No Walking.

The third rule of Jumping School: Only Jumping allowed.

Simple.

Now you might think that jumping repeatedly over piles of cushions isn't that great. But then you're not 4. And it's certainly passed my evenings for the past 3 weeks - so don't knock it till you've tried it, that's what I say. And no matter what - the Supreme Being loves it!! And that's good enough for me...

Videoclip: Jumping School

Peddling like crazy...

The last few weeks have all been a bit frantic. There's been Halloween, Bonfire Night, Emily's 4th Birthday and an unfortunate 'non-decision' on the adoption. It has been a truly wonderful few weeks though as there's been more than enough great experiences and lovely social memories to add to the many, many that make up our bulging family memory bank.

It's been a stonkingly, good, leaf-crunching autumn. The mild yet fair weather has meant we've spent much time out of doors and there's been plenty of biking activity all round. My morning commute has been particularly stunning at times...although I had been hoping I wouldn't have to do it all winter with adoption leave seeming imminent. Unfortunately the panel couldn't come to a decision, so it looks like we'll be back there either later in the year or early 2017. Slightly frustrating, but we really do have so much to be thankful for that it hasn't dampened our spirits.

The morning rush hour

So even though the new dawn didn't quite rise how we hoped in time for Christmas, Emily has been as ever leaping on apace. Her nursery school parents session gave us a glowing report and she clearly loves to learn. We've been out and about and she's taught herself to swing. She enjoyed Halloween and turned it from the macabre to 'fairy stylee'. In fact princesses and fairies are definitely a major feature in her life. Bonfire Night and fireworks were also a big hit (much improved from last year), and we had a grand 'old-fashioned' bonfire bash at the neighbours. And finally her 4th birthday was simply lovely, with my personal highlight being she got a 'new' (well obviously second-hand) pedal bike - which she mastered within days. Since then she's been peddling like crazy, and I've been one proud Dad.

 Princess-tastic

Scary Fairy Pumpkin House

Birthday shawl handmade by Chloe

Birthday cake handmade by Mummy

 Birthday bike handcleaned by Daddy 

And Birthday bash in full swing

Videoclip: Learning to swing in full swing

Videoclip: Peddling like crazy

Are rainbow's lucky? Let's hope so...

Bring on the girls...

Room for another little one?

There's a lot of girls in my life, and with any luck there'll soon be another one - so watch this space... But in the meantime - I've been trying to figure out some fundamental girl-based questions:

1. How do girls all seem to end up enjoying dressing up as 'princesses' not 'pirates', no matter how hard you try to avoid it?
2. And how do they also seem to all end up liking red and pink, no matter how much you try to colour control your life?
3. And why is ballet so appealing to young girls no matter how much you role model your best funk steps?

It seems there are some things that are just really hard to control in today's world, despite the best attempts to bring gender neutrality. I guess it's a bit like trying to stop all boys playing with swords and soldiers. I do remember in my years in Africa though it wasn't quite so clear cut, so clearly some of it is to do with the trappings of our modern lives.

All princessed up again

Emily loves her cousins Rosie and Abbie, and we recently descended on North Berwick for Rosie's 10th birthday (where did those years go!). As usual we had a grand old time and the girls just get along so well it makes life easy for us all. The birthday was a big success and the delight on the face of Rosie when she opened her telescope from John's Dad was a face that says a thousand words. Truly lovely...

 Cousinly love

 Telescopic delight

 More telescopic delight

 10 candles and a lot of blowing

The weather was grand, so Dad's and girls hit the beach for sandcastles and rock jumping. And our trip to North Berwick means we got to bring back Emily's new winter wardrobe. Endless hand-me-downs mean the Supreme Being has a plentiful free stockpile of clothes...enough to pass on to a little sister.

 All the big girls got in on the action

 Flying supreme across the sand

Trying on all the winter wardrobe at once

The next few weeks are big ones for us on the adoption front. So fingers crossed and send us your positive vibes that they all go well. Will keep you posted blogging stylee...