[Holidays] Christmas 2013

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

It's been an interesting week. My family and I travelled up to visit my Granny in Scotland. They left early and picked me up on the way past; I slightly misjudged how long it would take them to reach me, and was still getting dressed when they arrived! The knock-on effect of that was that I managed to forget to take a coat with me - not the most sensible thing to do considering our destination! In the end it turned out not to be a big deal, as the weather was so wet, windy, and wild that we stayed indoors almost all of the time.

Christmas day itself was a mixed bag. Granny was very ill indeed; we were worried that she'd got food poisoning, but that (spoiler) that turned out not to be the case. So she was somewhat out-of-it for the whole day. The rest of us enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner, and some enjoyable television including the Doctor Who Christmas special, which was pretty good and tied together loads of threads from Matt Smith's time at the reins, but suffered from the same problems as much of the recent series (overblown, too full of itself, bombastic in places). I got the usual selection of books, chocolate, and odds and ends, including several cookery books from my brother that seem to have lots of exciting recipes in them. I do know that I'm getting a telescope too, which is very exciting! I get to pick which one I'd like, within budget of course, and I've spent some time looking already. There are so many options that it's a little bewildering, but I think I've narrowed it down to a choice of two.

On boxing day Dad, my brother, and I went to see my Aunt and Uncle. I had a lovely time, in a large part due to their new Labrador. I say new, but they've had her for over a year now. I just hadn't met her before, and she's gorgeous. Very friendly and well behaved, and soooooo cute.

Unfortunately that evening I came down with the same illness that Granny had been experiencing, then my Mum caught it, and my brother caught it during the night - it turned out that there was a bug going around Shotts. I've not been that ill for many years, and I hope not to be again for many more; I'd forgotten how unpleasant vomiting was. Fortunately the worst of the symptoms were over by the time I woke up the next day after a long lie-in, although my appetite didn't return for a day or two. But it did put a but of a damper on things to have us all feeling ill.

Yesterday was our last day up in Shotts (we spent today travelling home). We went to visit my Mum's best friend and her family. She had two of her grandchildren up, so my brother and I played with them for several hours. They're adorable, and have grown so much since I last saw them. I don't know where they get their energy from, but I wish I could have half as much. They tired me out, and I'm glad I don't have to look after them every day!

So that was Christmas. Lots of good, but with a bit of truly awful thrown into the middle. I hope everyone else had a nice holiday, and got some fun presents.