Family Time!

I shall now attempt to fit a week's worth of Christmas Specials into one entry. I have slipped behind, as Christmas (and especially hosting Christmas for the first time) is hectic, and I had no time or willpower to write any entries while my family was here. But they did, in fact, arrive. Mom and Dad have been just waiting for me to move somewhere they've never been do they can visit me. So I move to Scotland, and it becomes the prime opportunity for travel. My brother Daron and sister-in-law Cathy (pronounced Kattsee, because she's Frenchish) followed suit. It's funny, we've never been a family that prides itself on being close to each other. My parents live in Cincinnati, my brother in Vermont, our extended families live all over the country, my brother's family lives in Jamaica and Toronto, Kattsee's family in Quebec, and I am a perpetual nomad, flitting between homes in (thusfar) four different countries on three continents, and who knows where I'll be come September. But as far away as we all live from one another, holidays have always been important to us in my immediate family. Daron married a Canadian, which means all Thanksgivings he can spend with Mom and Dad. Christmases, too, have always been a time to get together, and we always try to be there. We're close, emotionally, though far away, physically, and I have a feeling it doesn't usually work like that.

At any rate, they venture across the pond to visit Jonmikel and me, and for the first time I find myself organizing Christmas. If that doesn't throw me into the throngs of adulthood, I don't know what will. We all manage to do what tourists do here, you know, Loch Ness, the Highlands, Edinburgh Castle and Holyrood House Palace, Stirling (Stirling Castle was definitely way cooler than Edinburgh Castle, and Stirling was a darling town)... tourist stuff. It's amazing how small Scotland really is. A drive the center of the Highlands takes 3-4 hours; here, a journey of epic proportions. In Montana, its called a commute. But this means that if you leave early enough in the morning, you can see Loch Ness and dally among the Highlands for a day, and return home in time for a glass of wine and general family merry-making. A brief note about Loch Ness: it seems like just a large, cold lake when you're standing on the shores, until someone says, quite simply: "This is Loch Ness." And it is. Was. Whatever. Its simple in it's mystery, so simple you don't even notice it until someone states the obvious. This is Loch Ness. And it is, and that's pretty damn cool. Oh, and also, it's cold. Seriously cold. Lake Yellowstone cold, but so incredibly deep that it cannot freeze over even in the coldest of winter chills. And the water is black from the natural peat filters; its no wonder myths and legends surround the creatures that lurk in its depths.

As for Christmas, it was a rousing success. I managed to cook! I know, impossible you say. I somehow picked up some tips from my cooking-miracle-maker friend Laura and improvised a wonderful (if fairly unattractive-looking) breakfast of apple puff pancakes and apple-maple bacon, and a fabulous dinner of blue cheese pork chops, scalloped sweet potatoes and garlic green beans (courtesy of my father), with some Sainsbury's cheesecake and trifle for dessert. Everybody seems fat and sassy afterwards, and we whittled away the time with some Wii Play, showing the old folks the wonders of motion-sensor reality.

I also took stock of my Christmas loot; what more could a girl ask for, jewelry and bath products! I bought Jonmikel a copy of a mid-1600s map of Edinburgh for his educational pleasure. I actually held an original in my hand at the mapmakers, which I would have loved to buy for him for a mere 2000 pounds. Needless to say, a mere post-grad could not afford such finery; maybe someday I'll be able to buy an original 400-year-old map. Also, I bought JM a pair of anger management boxing gloves with which the boys (being JM, my brother and my father) entertained themselves briefly before Wiiing.

All-in-all, a very successful Christmas. Sorry if this was so brief, but Hogmanay has arrived!