Christmas and end of December

This is the cover of a Christmas Coo card Lizzy made for us.

Christmas was pretty simple at our house. We didn't want to give each other things that we'd have to fit in our suitcases.

My brother, Ben and his puppy. I think he is aging very well!

Carly sent their recent family photos. What a good-looking group!

I thought this was Austin when I first saw it, but it's Hunter with a moustache, holding Owen. He lives in Yucaipa, but came home for a week for Christmas.

Megan's baby, Isla Grace.

Isla Abigail

Tessa, Lucas, and Isla Abigail acting out the Nativity. Traditionally, at our house, the piano was under the stable, so that's what they are doing too.

 

December continued

Abby sent some sweet pictures of Isla and her brother and sister. Such a beautiful little family!

Tessa, Isla, Lucas

For FHE, we decorated cookies. Since we used leftover decorating supplies from Valentines's Day, they turned out pink!

The Ferris Wheel at the Christmas Market

I got these from Facebook, but a some good, snowy photos of Edinburgh

This is the cover of a Christmas card Lizzy designed.

The Union Canal, iced over

The senior missionaries, including President and Sister McCrudden went to the Lyceum Theatre to see a Scottish adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

We all sat in the second row, so great seats!

This was very well done and professional. We saw Beauty and the Beast in Falkirk last Christmas, and it wasn't really very good.

 

Baby Isla, Christmas Market, Snow and Parliament

Baby Isla Abigail, grandchild number 28, arrived December 10th. We are so relieved to have her safely herre. It was such a blessing that Carly and Bella were there for the birth, and could help with Tessa and Lucas while they went to the hospital. 

We had our last zone conference Thursday, and got to see Elder Van Gijsel, from Belgium. His family visited our ward a few years ago and his mom, Els, and I have stayed in touch via facebook since then.

We got snow this week! It was so beautiful Saturday morning when it was all fresh and white and pure. This is the canal by our flat.

This picture was on Facebook, but I like it. We pass by Grayfriar's Bobby almost every time we ride the bus into the city.

Here is a royal mailbox near the canal.

This is where we cross over the train tracks when walking to Aldi or Asda for groceries.

I didn't take these photos, but we did go to the Christmas market Tuesday. It was very cold, but felt Christmasy and ufn.

This cow was in a school playground and I couldn't resist the photo op.

This is a picture of the Parliament building

One of our Young Adults, Marah, works at Parliament, and she got her old boss to give us a private tour. It was quite interesting, especially with all of the sympolism.

 

HIGHLAND TOUR

We took a fun little trip up to Inverness and the Highlands this weekend. We stayed two nights in Inverness and went on an all-day tour of the Isle of Skye Saturday. We rode the bus up there, which was really quite relaxing. It was a nice bus and only stopped four times in cities along the way. It took about four hours, but it would have taken that long by car anyway, and this was free, with our bus passes.

The River Ness. I assume it flows out of Loch Ness into the sea.

Loch Ness was one of the first stops ont he tour. It's very close to Inverness. The guide told us it's 23 miles long and 3 miles wide. Loch Lomond is longer.

We also stopped at this castle called Ilene Donan, which was destroyed and rebuilt. It looks very authentic.

The hills were the best. They are called Cuith-Raing. It's where some of the latest Star Wars movies were filmed. We crove up to the top, and the view was amazing.

We got to see some Highland Coos, but they were in their feeding area, which was pretty muddy. They were more fun to look at in the Pentland Hills. I liked seeing the different colored ones though.

This couple grabbed the seats we wanted on the way back, but we could still see out quite well from the second seat behind.

Arriving back in Edinburgh, we hit the Christmas Market crowds and traffic was very slow. We will go check it out sometime later this week.

We took our friend, Yvonne, to lunch this week so we could say goodbye.