The Scottish Trip: Festivus

It's been a really nice week leading up to and through Christmas. The company has been grand and we've been blessed by really unseasonably warm weather which has caused much confusion amongst the roses that are starting to bloom again in our front yard. Besides being good for the flowery flora, it also gave us a couple of nice days at the beginning of the week to coincide with some time away from work. As the snow started to melt we went over to Bennachie and did a small trek through the forest. The dogs quite enjoyed it, running on and off the path and acting as scouts for the trail ahead. They've generally been quite spoiled for the past couple of weeks, getting lots of attention from Oma and Opa. Sydney, our friend's little miniature Schnauzer, has wormed her way into several hearts with her big dog attitude stuffed inside such a small package.

On Monday evening we got all fancied up and went to the Marcliffe for dinner. It was superb. Drinks in the lounge followed by an excellent course of starters - scallops and seafood bisque for myself and Fiona and guinea fowl and crab salad for my parents. The main course was the real winner, however, as it was only a few bites in when my mother proclaimed her Chateaubriand to be the best beef she had ever eaten. Given that there was 12 ounces of it on the plate, that was probably a good thing.

During the week we took it easy, counting down the days to Christmas by taking care of the dogs, finishing up the Christmas preparations and watching way too much darts. Gary Anderson made us all reconsider our jump on to his bandwagon with a lacklustre round 1 performance against a German qualifier. Although I didn't stay up for the match (having to work the next day) I could easily follow the ebb and flow through the loud and raucous cheering and jeering coming from downstairs. Hopefully he picks things up a little in the second round. The tournament is in a break now, set to resume with more second round matches on the 28th. We'll be watching for sure.

We've also been watching a few movies. Some are Christmas classics, like 'Elf' and ... 'Die Hard'. Others were just movies we had to hand, like 'Thor' and 'The Way Back'. The latter was a decent little movie about a group of escapees from a Siberian gulag that walked to India in 1941. Yes, walked. Very inspiring. It's hard to complain about a few metres of rough trail on Bennachie after seeing that.

We've also been doing some game playing, although not as much I had originally thought we might do. Our major focus has been the Christmas puzzles. We've now completed four of them. Three 500 piece ones of mixed difficulty and one new 1000 piece puzzle to go along with our usual '12 Days of Christmas' theme. We finished that on Friday night/Saturday morning. Having worked all day I tried to convince everyone that we should call it a night at a reasonable hour, but with slightly over two-thirds of the puzzle done, the bright eyed optimists decided that it could, and should, be finished before anyone turned in. So we buckled down and knocked it out, putting in the last piece sometime just before 2am. Now that's commitment.

Christmas Eve was a wonderful and relaxing day. We had planned on a fondue supper, so we started early in the afternoon preparing meats and sauces. Using a borrowed fondue set to complement our own, we set up both a broth and an oil pot. We had always had discussions regarding the pros and cons of broth fondue over oil fondue and, judging from those conversations, you would have thought broth to be the consensus choice. But set up one next to the other and the oil was most used. Perhaps there is something in the Scottish air that just makes everyone want to deep-fry. The dinner was delicious and well complimented by the wine, a nice 2005 Bordeaux we had purchased on one of our Paris trips. Should you see a similar wine kicking about in your local store, be sure to pick it up. We had lamb, beef, pork, chicken, shrimp and scallops to fondue, but the most popular dunkers were the turkey meatballs I whipped up.

Before the accusations of sloth and gluttony start flying at us, I'll need to bring up that we did spend a few hours earlier in the day wandering around Balmedie Beach, just north of Aberdeen. The weather was ... refreshing. A cool, constant wind was blowing, but the sky was blue and the sun was shining. I think the mercury topped out at over ten degrees. The dogs had an absolute blast, running all over the dunes, dodging and weaving along the rabbit paths in the long grass. It was a beautiful walk and left us primed and ready for our dinner.

With the clear skies and good weather, we found ourselves outside on Christmas Eve, looking through my telescope at Jupiter and five of its moons, as well as what we believe to have been Uranus. No flying reindeer or sleigh, though. But perhaps you need a filter for that?

Christmas Day started a little slow as we were all still digesting a little from the night before. But once the 'Wife Saver' was in the oven and the presents popping out from under the tree, it quickly got a lot more lively. Apparently we had all made it on to the 'Nice' list, as there was a pretty good haul of presents under the tree. Our family gift exchange worked well this year, as I had my Mom and she had me. Fiona received the new Professor Layton game from Mark, so if you have anything you need from her in the next few days, I'd hurry up and get to it before she disappears into her DS. The theme for Dad was books, as he received some on Russian history and on Libya, and also a biographical book about a Scottish doctor who worked for the Tsars which he has being powering through. Mom received a nice family calendar and her sought after infinity scarf, as well as more of her favourite gemstone, amber, set in a pair of earrings. She also awoke this morning to find the Duchess of Cambridge on the front cover of the paper wearing a hat the exact same colour as the one she found under the tree. Who's the trendsetter now?

Fiona and I also found Santa had ticked most of our boxes. Fiona received a nice map of Europe, framed and mounted, with a supply of pins so that she can keep track of her worldly travels. She also found the complete set of Harry Potter movies, as well as the Harry Potter video game, so I guess JK Rowling had a good Christmas too. Her wish for socks was also granted. The wide angle lens for her camera was perhaps the greatest prize.

Santa decided I should finally do something about my driving habits and gave me some example videos under the 'Fast and Furious' banner. I also received a plethora of Scottish beer glasses, something I had been looking for in vain for the past two years. Turns out Santa (or Mrs. Claus) is just more efficient that I am. As a card-carrying member of 'Familie LeesNeus' I also received my share of books, both of the comic (Sherlock Holmes and Adele Blanc-Sec) and novel (Sarah Vowell, John Hodgman) varieties. Santa also fed my growing astronomical habit by sending an SLR camera attachment and series of filters and eye-pieces, as well as a re-chargable power supply so I am no longer dependant on those 8 C-cell batteries.

We spent the day talking to family on the phone and on Skype and preparing the evening meal. Turkey was, of course, the main attraction, and Fiona truly knocked it out of the park once again. It was a little touch and go for a few minutes, as she tried to make the call on whether it was well and truly done or not, but in the end she achieved the perfection she was looking for. Prior to the turkey we had a salad topped with sauteed lemon shrimp and a chipotle aioli. With the bird came a fine assortment of the usual suspects - braised Brussells sprouts (the last in all Aberdeen), cranberry sauce (using berries imported from, get this, Latvia), stuffing, roast potatoes and green beans. We all took it easy on the portion sizes knowing that Fiona would be carting individual Sticky Toffee Puddings to the table for dessert. They were an absolutely fabulous capper to an amazing holiday meal. To top it off we introduced Mom and Dad to the wonderful tradition of Christmas Crackers. Everyone was a winner and paper hats were worn by all. The toys were actually quite good - a slinky for Dad, a yo-yo for Mom, a clapper for me and a bracelet for Fiona. The jokes, however, were the usual groaners, with the best one being:

What do you call a line of men waiting for a haircut?

A Barber Queue.

We've spent this Boxing Day reading our new books, playing our new games and going to Castle Fraser with the faithful hounds, who are now resting quite peacefully in the living room. It has been a a truly grand Christmas. I hope it was the same for all of our dear readers, with good times shared with your families the way we were fortunate enough to spend this year with ours.

Onward and upward to New Year's Eve!