Christmas this year was different. We went to Carnoustie and stayed in 2 rented cottages for the week to be near Gran (in hospital so is nice to visit) and small cousins (as we are not exciting enough for my parents at Christmas anymore). The week consisted of hospital visits*, trips to the beach (including on Christmas day for a photo to e-mail to my dad's brother who always has Christmas day on the beach**), cooking, eating, drinking and entertaining children. It was jolly nice and fun.
The holiday may become "The Train Holiday" as the Dundee-Aberdeen train line runs about 2' from the kitchen window. Whenever a train came past someone (or everyone) shouted "TRAIN!" as someone came up with the stupid superstition that you have to take your feet off the floor. My favourite might have been when we were on the beach and "TRAIN!" so Carla (6) threw herself onto belly on the sand to make her feet airborne. Stupid rule. Another memorable train moment (train, no "TRAIN!") happened when Carla was looking for a job in the kitchen. I didn't have any, so tried to get her out of the way by telling her to look out of the window and wait for a train to come past. It took about 3 seconds. I was hoping to entertain her for at least 20 minutes! Oh well...
Mummy's birthday also happened, and for that another of her sisters and their children arrived. We had a Scottish evening of haggis neeps and tatties, and the girls surprised her with cards they made out of things we could find on the beach. Lovely. It also involved pass the parcel which I had to rig so the right people opened it in the right order. That was almost complicated with kids saying "You've got to close your eyes!" "You're cheating!" Be quiet or else you'll get something you don't want!
We drove back down on the 30th, and on spent the 321st sorting out some present things - Jennifer bought walking boots and we swapped her hand blender for a model that you can put in pan hot liquids, and I got a different digital radio with iPod docking station. Brilliant. But all the driving and shopping got the better of us, and we couldn't be bothered doing anything on new years's eve! Me and Jen did a jigsaw and we all watched Monty Python before half-heartedly going outside to watch fireworks. New year's day itself was lovely though - a walk up to Rivington Pike then back to Steph's for food and a quiz. I came second in pretty much every round. Oh well. There's always next year...
* My favourite hospital story is Gran explaining how you had to be patient in that ward. She'd been left outside the toilet as someone was in with the promise the nurse would be back in a minute. "I counted to 539 before they came back!" Why did she count to 539? I don't know, but it's ace.
** He does live in Sydney though.
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