Merry Christmas from the Family

More welcoming than I can describe.

Coming from a place that is warm, flat, dry, and without Christmas, we were beyond thrilled to be in a hilly, rainy, cold place.  Like our trip last year, I had brought along a little paper Christmas tree to build for our decorations.  But if you can imagine arriving at a place in the pitch black at night, cold and stressed from the drive, and still tired from the plane ride and general travel.  And you walk in and there is a Christmas tree with lights and ornaments. Yes, it's just a small plastic table-top tree.  But come on: it was a Christmas tree. And there was a little tinsel garland decorating the living room. I cannot tell you how much that meant to us.

We had two days at the cottage before Christmas and actually took one of our driving trips on Christmas Eve.  More on that later...but yes, indeed Santa did come see us.  Thank god for those GPS homing devices I had implanted in the Indian silk stockings.

We spent Christmas day eating homemade shepherd's pie and watching movies in our p.j.s.

Santa did find us.

Hannah lasted until 8 AM before waking us up.  Of course, it's still pitch dark outside. Santa brought wool blankets!  He shops to support the local economy...

Christmas in the Scottish Western Highlands.

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And then, just because you need to know.  

Here are the pictures I took trying to get the one shot above...

Sigh.