Christmas Tidings

Rik here ....

To our faithful blog readers, it may be a day late and a dollar short, but we hope you had a Merry Christmas, or as they say here - a happy Christmas.  

We tried our best to make one here in Aberdeen.  On Christmas Eve we went for dinner at a friend's house.  Fondue was served, wine was enjoyed and games were played.  Our efforts to keep it in the realm of a friendly game were foiled by our choice of teams - boys vs. girls.  Although it was close, the eventual winner was ... the men.  We had a really good time and it feels good to know that no matter where you go, you can always find nice people that you can turn into good friends.

We had a refreshing walk home (I never once got the opportunity to say that in Houston!), but unfortunately were to tired to get into the lovely sausage rolls that Fiona had picked up at the butcher shop.  They are now in the freezer awaiting an occassion grand enough to warrant sausage rolls.

Christmas day started well enough.  We had a little bit of a sleep in before tumbling down the stairs to check out the Christmas tree and its full load of presents.  Fiona had a good day, picking up a Nintendo DS (a portable game system for the non-initiated), a series of books on psychology, our favorite British series "As Time Goes By" on DVD and a panini maker.  She had earlier intercepted her jewelry box as it was being delivered.  I was similarly spoiled with a Blu-Ray player to replace the one we left in Houston, some movies, a couple of Rothko prints (look him up, you'll either love it or ask yourself what anyone could possibly see in them), some reading material and a new blue bathrobe.  I guess it was our attempt to keep the British economy afloat.

We set a nice table for dinner and Fiona turned out a perfectly cooked turkey.  She spent a considerable amount of time trying to convince me that she hadn't and that it was either undercooked or overcooked, she had a hard time accepting her own brilliance for some reason.  Anyway, we had all the trimmings, Brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, home made stuffing and some nice potatoes.  Fiona had decorated the table with candles and tinsel and we listened to our 1000th Christmas carol.  We missed our families, but it was nice to have a meal like that just the two of us.  Before I get too sentimental, we then broke out the blow torch and finished off our creme brullee.  Fabulous.

We hooked up the Blu-Ray and were happy to note that it played discs we had purchased in the States.  That was nice, because most DVD's purchased there won't work here, and vice versa.  Glad to see something go our way on that front.  It has been frustrating to have to go out and buy new stuff to replace perfectly good stuff we had in Houston just because the plug is wrong or the TV signal is different.

We did manage to finish our Christmas puzzle, which was actually our second Christmas puzzle.  As Fiona solved puzzles on her Nintendo I got to lay in the last few pieces.  Always satisfying.  I do sometimes regret not picking up the 18,000 piece puzzle we saw that one time in Las Vegas.  I can't imagine the arguments we would have over that: "Rik, you have to move your puzzle, I need the dining table back", "I can't move it now, I only have 4000 pieces to go!"

We spent this Boxing Day catching up on sleep and laundry.  We went for a walk in Hazelhead Park, a great recreational area on the edge of Aberdeen.  It helped clear our heads a bit.  We broke in the pannini press with turkey, brie and cranberry panninis.  And we watched the incredibly awful last installment of the Mummy movies.  I'm hoping to take advantage of Fiona's new Nintendo obsession to finish reading my book - a recommendation from my sister Linda.  It's David Starkey's "Monarchy".  Anyone with PBS might recognize him as the bespectacled Englishman with a similarly titled show.  It's a great read, full of interesting tidbits about the zany kings and queens that have ruled Britain for the last few hundred years.

We've got the Snow Ball to go to tomorrow and we're both looking forward to that.  Any chance I get to be seen dancing with the most beautiful woman in the room, I take.  I do have to put on the tuxedo, though.  That feels like a photo opportunity to me.  Keep your eyes on the bog, I'll try and convince Fiona to post at least one.  The Internet deserves to have our good looking mugs on it.

Cheers and Merry Boxing Day.