Family Holiday, Week 2: Edinburgh

Here are a few more pics from the Dalhgren family visit to Scotland.
Week two with the fam. was spent in Edinburgh. We rented a funny little flat located right in the middle of everything. We visited Edinburgh Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, shopped a bit, took the train to Stirling for a day to see Stirling Castle, and of course, celebrated New Years Eve (known as Homanay 'round these parts).

Princes Street decorated for the holiday festivities.The view from the castle, Princes Street and the gardens with the stage set up for Hogmanay concerts.
Edinburgh Castle.Edinburgh at night.
The Palace of Holyroodhouse, still used by the Queen in the summer months.

Look behind the couple walking across the street. Yep, its Batman in a kilt. He was wandering around the ridiculously long line for Hogmanay tickets.

So I have discovered that New Years Eve is HUGE in Scotland. They call it Hogmanay and it is a big deal, with Edinburgh hosting what is basically a city wide party. Honestly, people came from everywhere to Edinburgh for Hogmanay. Soren and I didn't really decide to buy tickets until just a couple days before, when I found out that Paulo Nutini (or as Soren called him Paulo Nutella Martini) was going to be there. The morning of New Years Eve found Soren and I standing in line in St. Andrew's Square to see if we could buy tickets to the show. There was only one line for picking up pre-ordered tix and for buying, although it seemed that most everyone was there just to pick up tix. After only an hour Soren and I were moved out of the line and taken straight up to the ticket counter to buy tickets!! Sweet! At that point the line was like two and a half city blocks long.
Opening a can of Haggis, our newest addition to New Years Even supper. :)
The great production that was New Years Eve supper.

One of my favorite pics. Even though I know there really wasn't anything left in there. Grandma and I were celebrating a bit before Dad sat down with us. :)

They're Here!!

It was at least about four weeks out when Jens and I began our countdown. For me it was a countdown for just one thing but really the countdown meant the end of term, my family's arrival and then a few days later, Jens getting to go home. Literally, every time we saw each other we would shout out the weeks and then days remaining. In those four weeks our conversations always ended up the same. They may have begun with a "Hello" or even a "How are you?" but always turned into "X more days!! I'm so excited. Oh, I can hardly wait." And so on and so on until everyone here was really looking forward to the visit. Whether they were merely excited for me or excited to meet my family for themselves I think it varied but everyone was interested in who was coming and what we were doing and when they were arriving.

You can imagine that when I heard about the snow in Seattle, I was a bit worried about my family's travel plans. After counting down for four weeks I did not want to think about flight delays. I tried to be reasonable though and I told myself that it could happen and that they'll get here when they get here. In order to ease the disappointment should they be delayed, I began making an effort to not be too excited anymore. I was working on this tactic on Friday morning as I sat down at my computer to check if their flight landed on time. Just as I sat down Kirsten knocked at my door to say, "Your family's in the office." !!!!!!!!!



My train buddy. Riding a train was never so exciting as riding it with Henrik and sharing in his excitement. Can you guess already who is going to be the star of these photos? I think you can.

Our adorable little cottage in Portnockie.
The coast. This was not even two minutes from our cottage. It was so nice to spend some time on the coast. I really loved it.More coast.
It was COLD. This little guy is all bundled up but the poor thing could barely see most of the time because that hat just wouldn't stay above his eyes. He never really complained though.
Goin' for a walk.

Tryin' out the Ugg look. This was entertaining. I picked him up and put him in the boots but then his little feet kept getting turned around inside when he tried walking and it was hilarious.
My nephew is prettier than your nephew!Those bracelets were on and off and on and off but he knew exactly which bracelets he wanted on which wrists.

My lovely mother made me a proper pumpkin pie!! Well, okay, not just for me. But oh, it was delicious.
And then the apple pie!!
A beautiful sight.
I just love that face!Our fake fireplace.
The tree. Unbelievable but my father still got his photo of everyone in front of the tree this year. By the way Dad, I need your photos.


Just hangin' out in the cottage.
The harbor. Portnockie is a fishing village. FYI.
Out for a walk with Grandma.
Tide pools. Enjoying a wee bit o' beach combing.

Henrik helping great grandma with the dishes.


My mummy is the best cook!! It was so nice to eat her cooking for two weeks. Even if it had a slightly Scottish twist because we couldn't find the usual ingredients.
So sweet! This boy was handing out hugs and kisses left and right. Lucky me. I stocked up.


Oh, there is more. Coming soon I promise.

Christmas Term: Part 2

Gerusa and Jens with their lanterns for St. Martin's Day Festival. With each of the children we made lanterns and gathered at the hall. From the hall we carried our light to a few of the houses within the school where we sang for sweets. Our very own winter wonder land. We had several days of snow this term. Never very much and it never lasted very long but very beautiful. The very first day that it snowed Boris made plans for part of our class to go to the "mountains" to go sledging. We had a lot of fun and as always a bit of adventure. If I can get those photos from Boris then I'll post them later.

From my window.

Kirsten, making our Advent wreath. Our house gathered together one night in the sitting room, around the fire to sing carols and make our wreath.Kirsten getting a little help from Neil.


Santa Lucia Festival. That is Annie as Santa Lucia and then myself, Esther, Caroline and Kirsten.
Processing around the room, singing.

This was our last outing with the class. Boris dropped Stefan and I off on this road here with two of the boys and we were told to follow the road toward that farmhouse in the distance on the right. Boris said just follow the road walk around the house and through the courtyard area past the fields and find the river. Strange as it sounded that is what we did and when we past the barn and weren't sure which way to go, the kind man on the tractor gave us directions to cross through his fields until we found the river. Meanwhile, Boris and the others were following the river from the other direction (they parked the car down the road at the coffee shop) to meet us and then walk back toward the coffee shop together. I love outings that end in a coffee shop!
We found the river!!

I hope you have enjoyed this brief glimpse at our Christmas term here at school. It was a very eventful term as you can see, full of festivals. It was a wonderful term made even better with the anticipation of a visit from my family.......