Tag: Christmas
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Christmas 2024
Merry Christmas everyone! I am feeling much better today and it has been a wonderfully relaxing day at home. We all slept in, opened presents, then went for a walk down the river with some friends. It’s been an exceptionally mild day today of about 12C. Then we had a late lunch of roasted vegetables,…
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Lebkuchen
I make lebkuchen in December every year. This year I modified the recipe slightly to make it healthier by reducing the amount of sugar and replacing vegan butter with olive oil. I try to avoid all seed oils these days but olive oil in small amounts is probably ok. This is the good thing about…
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Covid for Christmas
I finally got covid. I took a test on the weekend and the two lines appeared immediately. I haven’t had covid until now and was thinking I might be one of those super-humans who have no symptoms but it turns out I was probably just protected previously thanks to the vaccine. Ben got very ill…
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The season of Christmas markets has begun
It is the season of Christmas markets and we’ve been to two so far and counting. Last weekend was the Christmas market at Ardoe House, a Baronial 19th century mansion about 3 miles from Aberdeen that’s used as a hotel. It’s in a lovely picturesque spot beside the River Dee. The market was extremely crowded…
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Happy 14th birthday, Elizabeth
Today is New Year’s Eve for everyone else but for us it’s Elizabeth’s birthday. She was born on this day 14 years ago. We took her to her favourite restaurant for dinner with her oldest friend Dione who she’s known since her first year of school. We don’t eat out much these days and it…
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A Christmas to remember – snow, storm, vomits, and drunks
We’re back in Aberdeen having spent an enjoyable yet dramatic week away in Aviemore over Christmas. We arrived last Friday night packed like sardines in a hire car with the largest boot I could possibly get. It was a scary drive because it was dark and there were blizzard-like conditions. We had to take Rocket…
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Merry Christmas 2023
We are in Aviemore and it has been an eventful couple of days with Ben spending much of Friday night puking. He’s mostly recovered now but Elizabeth fell victim on Christmas Eve and spent the night puking and Christmas Day unable to eat very much. There are 10 of us in the house so we’re…
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The Green Loch in snow
We’re in Aviemore and we awoke to a winter wonderland this morning so what better thing to do than a walk to The Green Loch. I’ve not seen it in the snow before and this is one of our favourite lochs as it’s a pretty green lake surrounded by hills and forest. I’ve got photos…
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The 12 outfits of Christmas 2022
We spent Christmas at home this year with friends and it has been lovely. The kids are definitely teenagers now as they didn’t wake up until after 9am. Gone are the days of them jumping out of bed at 6am with excitement about presents. I think they were still excited but they also like their…
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Crochet Audrey 2, Christmas tree, and Daniel is taller than me
Another weekend disappears. Daniel told me last week that he didn’t want to go anywhere for the next couple of weekends as he’s studying for exams. He’s so studious but then I was the same. He’s taller than me now by nearly 2cm. We measured today. That happened very quickly. He’s shooting up at a…
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Scottish wildcat
Today we think we saw a Scottish wildcat. This is another very elusive creature whose population has been decimated over the past couple of hundred years. It is critically endangered and although it once roamed all of the UK it is now found only in northern and eastern Scotland. If it is a Scottish wildcat…
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Christmas 2021
Christmas in the Scottish Highlands is turning out to be one of the best Christmases we’ve had. I even saw a pine marten for the first time ever. These are very elusive creatures whose numbers have dwindled over the past couple of centuries due to hunting for their fur, habitat loss, and predation control. I…
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Omicron land
We’re living in Omicron land here with the new variant taking over as the most dominant in Scotland as of today. Things change so rapidly. Last month the UK was in the best position in Europe to manage the virus over the winter. Then Omicron arrived. I’m not so worried about getting sick although I’d…
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Christmas 2020
Many people saw their Christmas plans scuppered this year thanks to the dreadful plague. We were meant to be in the Highlands today but had to cancel our trip last week. It hasn’t all been bad though. Christmas arrived on Christmas Eve this year with snow in Aberdeen and also a Brexit deal at last.…
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Lebkuchen for lunch
I dreamt last night that it snowed and in my dream I woke up and looked out the window to see Santa skiing down a nearby hill. I got up – still in my dream – and had breakfast but by the time I’d finished eating all the snow had melted. When I really did…
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My awesome bike and veggie Chinese takeaway
The best thing about these dark days is how awesome my bike looks. If you’re looking for a good Christmas present for someone who likes to eat a lot of plants then I recommend The Veggie Chinese Takeaway Cookbook. Who doesn’t like Chinese takeaway? I made the hoisin sauce today then used it in one…
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Lorry queues, supermarket queues, food production, and Christmas dinner
Victoria helped me wrap some presents today. Actually, she was a right nuisance and ended up tearing the paper. I went to the shops early this morning to beat the rush but still there was a long queue outside the food court at Marks & Spencer. I decided not to go in. I’m not a…
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O Christmas tree
We put our Christmas tree up last weekend. It’s the same timber tree we use every year that we bought in the UK several years ago. Unfortunately the company appears to have gone out of business now but we love our tree. The lights are up in the city centre and they’re very pretty, especially…
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Christmas 2019
I always like to write about what we did for Christmas each year because it creates a record of it for the future. Can you remember where you were for Christmas in 2016? Who were you with? What did you eat? It’s amazing how quickly we forget. For Christmas 2019 we were at our home…
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For the treatment of headaches
I got this terrific present from Ben for Christmas today. It contains 6 bars of my favourite chocolate with this prescription. It’s just as well I’m married to a doctor.
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