A Very Ancient Christmas

Hello All,

   I want to start out this blog a bit more serious that the usual goofiness. Christmas is my favorite holiday because of what it represents. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. I want to start out this blog by saying God is Great! The thought of his Grace brings me to my knees with tears streaming down my face.

Christmas in The Highlands



The Cast: Raymond & MB, Andrea & Garrick, Lindsay & Adam, and Adam's best friend Bob.

The Van  

On Christmas Eve we all crammed into a 7 seater minivan. Let me stress the word MINI! When I booked the car rental the women said the van was made for two adults and 5 children. Let me stress that NONE of us are child size. There was also NO trunk space. This means we all had to carry what we brought on our laps or around our feet. The two poor guys in the very back had things piled on top of them. They were good sports! 

The reason we didn't get a bigger van was because Raymond was not old enough. 30 was the age limit and Raymond is 29. Also the van we did get was a stick. Raymond was a CHAMP shifting with his left hand and navigating through the narrow Scottish roads. We had no shortages of Wind and Rain storms. 

Hiking



Can you spot us?



 He had some great adventurous hikes. We went exploring every day. The Highlands is an amazing place with so much ancient history. One of my favorite hikes was to a Pictish fort on top of a mountain. The hurricane force winds we had a few weeks back had torn down tons of trees blocking the beginning of the path. We climbed through these trees and a few scrapes and twigs in the eye later we made it through the trees to a clearing. We went straight up from there. The fort was amazing. It was so awesome to be in a fort that was so ancient, the view wasn't too shabby either.

There was no snow on the ground but the rivers were overflowing! One day we went into Inverness and walked around. We then went a little outside of the town and found this ancient burial grounds. They were dated to be around the time of King David. How amazing is that?

Just outside of Inverness is Loch Ness. Of course we went searching for NESSIE!!! Raymond, Adam and Bob went swimming in Loch Ness. It was so cold but they braved it. Bob even did in NAKED!!!! AHHH

The ladies were not so keen on getting ALL the way into loch Ness. So we kinda got it...



Our "Getting in pic"



On Loch Ness there is a castle called Urquhart Castle. It was amazing!

On our way home we stopped at an ancient Roman camp site near Perth. The wind and rain were fierce, stinging our faces but just picturing a Roman legion camping here on there way to try and defeat the "savages of the north" was inducing chill bumps.

Yes, I'm a history nerd.

Christmas Morning!

Christmas morning Raymond and I woke up late and breakfast was already cooked! What great friends we have! We all ate breakfast casserole and home made cinnamon rolls. (pretty sure I gained 10 lbs from this trip the food was so good) We all brought one gift and did a white elephant gift exchanged.

The gift I got stuck with is terrifying. It is a creepy clown figurine holding a small snow globe. Inside the snow globe was a monkey wearing a hat. Let me tell you, I'm really scared of clowns. I also got a cool foam airplane.

While my older brother was babysitting me he let us watch IT and I've never been the same. Clowns are never ok with me.

Christmas supper was great! We had ham, sweet potato casserole, green beans, and awesome bread. Bob cooked the Ham and it was really tasty!

Sardines & MORE

We played a lot of games while in our 4 bedroom rental house. The first night we played Sardines. Lindsay was the sardines queen. She found almost everyone first and it took us forever to find her when she hid. We had so much fun and laughed till our cheeks hurt.

The entire time we were there we played games. I'm glad we have found friends who like to play games like we do.

All in all we had a great time in the Scottish Highlands and I would love to go back and have more adventures. Who's with me?