Day 24 - Christmas Eve

It is probably the best day of the year: there are sights and sounds that can be captured on camera, but smells that bring memories flooding back into your heart, soul and tearducts? That's a bit harder!

This will, of course, be our last blog for the next eleven or so months, but it has been super to know that we've been sharing our Advent with you all.

Anyway, enough of the gooey stuff, here are some photos...

These are us going to the butchers' to collect meats! This is an annual tradition which started in 2010, the first Christmas we had in Wick and when we had heavy snow and had to bring the meats home on the sledge.

These are my special Christmas Eve Weasels Socks! I only ever wear them on the 24th December!

Christmas Eve is without doubt the most magical day of the year. The light this year was so fitting...

Because we head out to Midnight Mass (in about forty minutes - eek!), we have a late supper on Christmas Eve. Here are some pics from that.

The Christmas Tree is looking rather fabulous with all the presents underneath!

Of course, our blogs just wouldn't be complete without a picture (or maybe more than one!) of Orlando! He doesn't much like Christmas Eve because everyone is dashing around being busy and he just has to sit on his own some of the time. He prefers Christmas Day, when everyone sits down together!

As we were walking Orlando, we saw a buzzard watching us. It kept flying a little further away every time we got a bit closer. Seeing it made me wonder if birds celebrate Christmas too.

Speaking of animals celebrating Christmas, Charles and Teddy Deer have a great time this time of year.

I'm not a townie, but even I can't deny that Wick does look rather stunning as you come down the hill towards it.

It seems apt to end our Advent blog with our Advent calendar, and greenery to symbolise new life...

...and our perpetual calendar to look forward into 2019...

Merry Christmas!

Day 23 - Festive Spaniel!

The second day off school and I'm enjoying spending time with family, including Orlando.

Orlando has this insistence that he must have contact. When I was kneeling up in the armchair, he decided to get as close as he could:

It's a dog's life!

I'm not sure that he was very comfortable but he stayed up there for a long time and we couldn't persuade him to jump off:

This Sunday is the last Sunday in Advent and Jude and I toddled off to church. It doesn't seem a minute ago since the beginning of December!

We had to wrap up warm, though, as you can never be sure whether it'll be Summer or Winter in church...

This afternoon we went to Tesco to do some more Hamper Shopping! Here is an example of our shopping craziness...

There's something rather wonderful about coming home to a house with lots of lights on...

We're very proud of Dad at the moment because he sneakily wrote a letter to the local paper. It's all well and good putting the world to right around the breakfast table, but sometimes you need to go public!

This year, the tree has about 1200 lights. You can clearly see it from the other side of the Square, but it's dazzling when you're are close-up too!

The crib is also looking very special...

Here are the lanterns in the Kitchen, which go on every time we have a meal...

And finally, to finish off tonight's blog...a study of spaniel...

Day 22 - Jolly Holidays

Advent is drawing to an end. The Advent Candle has been a welcome addition to our table throughout the month:

It's the first day of the Christmas holidays so teachers and children up and down the country will be celebrating tonight!

Here's Orlando celebrating with a ride on the tractor:

Newtonhill looks lovely in the wintry afternoon:

Here's Ginny in Christmas get-up:

It's always super to remember friends, and these beautiful flowers that were a gift from Mum's friend, Shirley, remind us of the beauty of friendships:

Also a gift from Shirley, the wreath (hanging from the shepherd's crook) and snowflakes look stunning and make superb Christmas decorations:

In the afternoon, we went to the Nine Lessons and Carols at St John's. It was a lovely, relaxed and Christmassy atmosphere. This window is beautiful all year round, but has special significance over Christmas:

Coming back from the church, we noticed the Christmas full moon. Play the 'guess which is the street light' game:

Meanwhile, Ginny was taking moon pictures from home:

Today's job was to move the table from the Music Room into the Kitchen. For this, we needed to remove doors. Getting it back on was interesting...:

This was followed by a crazy game of Table Football - and some even crazier mirror selfies:

Naughty puppy:

Of course, the Christmas Tree needs another mention. Here's the snowman too, a Christmas tradition of a jar filled with sweets. Every year, Mum decorates the jar to look like a snowman:

The lights of the tree are dazzling through the door, and the advent calendar is almost finished:

Let's see what tomorrow brings...