December in Scotland (Christmas Part 1)

December was a busy month for us as we finished out the school semester and celebrated new and old family traditions of the Christmas season. We started with a little family photo shoot at the Castle Sands by the North Sea. With my camera propped on some boxes (I left my tripod in the States), we managed to squeeze out a few shots with one good photo before Joseph got his trousers (pants:) wet and we had to head home. Thankfully, it was a fairly warm day by Scottish winter standards and no harm was done. Our apologies if you didn't receive a card from us. We're working out the kinks of doing this from overseas. After ordering most of the cards from the UK, I ordered a few more with a deal in the US when I realized that I wouldn't have enough. In the rush to get it all done and recreate the nice note Joey included on the back, I completely forgot to change the text on the front. So, instead of wishing people Merry Christmas from the O'Beirnes...we decided to just count that a loss and move on. *sigh*

Family photo 2013

sweet brothers in their wellies 

Joseph's class participated in a Christmas play at school. We loved watching him confidently recite his line as one of the Roman Soldiers. He counted "...17, 18, 19, 20!". There were several songs and the play went off without a hitch. Way to go, Joseph!!

Last year, we ventured into the realm of gingerbread house decorating. We found another kit at the grocery store and enjoyed decorating it on a cold, rainy day.

Joseph admiring his work

We never found a Santa to have our picture made with but the boys' schools each had a visit from Santa where presents were passed out. Joseph's school had a fundraiser where you could visit Santa's Grotto and every little boy and girl received an individual wrapped present. At James' school Christmas party, Santa made an appearance and passed out presents to his class. 

We tried in the past to do family Advent readings during the Christmas season, usually just on Sunday nights. December is so busy we often found it hard to squeeze it in with everything else going on. Life is slower here and the early, dark days mean we rarely go anywhere as a family during the evenings. I found this blog (http://partofthemain.wordpress.com/advent-readings-2011/) through the community here and we loved using her Advent readings during December. She has a short one for every day and they are the perfect length for small children. We sat around our make-shift wreath and read and sang songs before taking turns blowing out the candles.

 

O Come, O Come Emmanuel