Christmas in Scotland!

Uncle Jay, with his girlfriend Susan
Ciaran and I...we make quite a pair!




They waited for me to fly in on the 25th and we opened presents that night. Em just can't wait to see what is inside.



Aunt Susie, Gordon and Ciaran singing some scottish tunes!














My beautiful Cousins...Emily and Sara.
(do we look related!??!!)




This year I spent my Christmas break in Scotland with my family!!! It was a nice break from here, and good to be with some family for Christmas. It was a lot of fun to go back and visit them again. They are always so welcoming and great. Even though my cousins..Sara and Em have lived across the big ocean for the majority of our lives, we have always been pretty close. So it was nice to have some late night girlie cousin talk!! And of course I became a pro racer on Selectrics (a motorized race track type thing!) Ciaran's favourite Christmas present! Oh, and I definately ate enough custard for everyone who misses the wonderful stuff!! (My fellow Capernwrayers!)

It's been awhile!

This year my Christmas was really special, it was very different than what I am used to. A nice meal at Grandma's followed by opening presents, turkey buns for supper, and the candle light service. I spent Christmas this year -on the 24th we had what was called "Gassenweinachten" street Christmas. It is a yearly thing that the church her puts on with the help of many organizations including OM. Actually there was about 150 volunteers who came and helped. Some stayed in the church to visit with the guests, and others went out onto the street or into the restaurants and bars with presents to give to the people, but also to just visit with them. My job along with Hekie and Sarah was to decorate and help in the Bistro. The main meal was downstairs in the church, and upstairs in the sanctuary we had the bistro, which is just a coffee bar and another place to sit and visit. This was a challenge because between the 3 of us..we probably are the least artsy people. We really wanted to make a warm and cozy atmosphere where the guest would feel comfortable, so we went with many candles. And though our decorations weren't the greatest, it still ended up having a really nice atmosphere! A lot of the guests that came were people that we see around very often in the different places where we work. For me it was really special to share Christmas with them. To really be able to see that Christmas is much more than the presents, and to see that Jesus truly is the reason we celebrate this day. We had over 300 guests throughout the evening who came had a nice Christmas dinner and a warm place to visit. I believe that each guest was blessed by this evening, but I think I came away more blessed, and with a deeper understanding of what Christmas really is.

The Stage..

Birds Eye View..The one is my favourite, because of reflection from the stage..

A few guests and workers..

And of course us, we ate in a special part-we look so tired!

It was a long night.