Beach Anyone??

It stops raining for 24 hours and we had the crazy idea that it would be a nice day to get outside and well, go to the beach? It's only 30 minutes away. I'm sure it's beautiful; rocks, green hills, islands in the distance......and it was but it's ............WELL, it's still January in Scotland!

Last Saturday morning we put on our long underwear, packed a picnic and headed to the West Coast of Scotland. It was a nice day (it was not pouring down rain and the temperature was above freezing) and we were itching to do a little more exploring. So off we went with our ski jackets, gloves and mittens and we headed West. The drive was beautiful; rolling green hills, old stone walls, century old farm houses and sheep!

We stopped at a beach in Langhouse and hopped out to play in the sand. The rocks were beautiful and the boys immediately started climbing! We collected shells and rocks, explored the seaweed piles and walked up and down the beach. It really was a "brilliant" afternoon but man, it is REALLY cold in January on the beach in Scotland. The boys lasted much longer than Scott and I. When we couldn't feel our toes, we drove to a park in the nearest town to ride our skateboards and enjoy our picnic but literally were frozen in 15 minutes so we headed home to our cozy house for our picnic!

We really must go back there in August, I'm sure it's lovely! When we went to dinner Saturday night (blog to come on that as well) and people heard about our day; they laughed in our face! We had a great day but I think we'll stick to the museums in the winter!

Pictures from Christmas in Texas and Louisiana

Just getting around to loading the pictures and getting some of them posted! We had such a great time with all of our family over the holidays!

Happy New Year

Hello, hello and Happy 2008 to everyone! We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you are enjoying the New Year.

We had a great trip to the States over the holidays. We spent time in Arlington with Scott's family, caught up with a few friends in Dallas, and saw my family in Louisiana. It was a whirl wind trip full of blessings! We loved each visit and only wished there was more time with each family and friend. (If we missed you this trip, we want to see you next time!)

We are back in the swing of things with school and work in Glasgow and are settling back into our routines. We were excited to see our friends here and it felt good to sleep in our beds! The weather is positively miserable and everyone says this is how it will be for awhile. Today the high was 34 and we had a break in the rain for about half the day. Otherwise, it has been raining non-stop, super cold, sleeting, and the winds were 50 miles and hour one night. YIKES!

During the break in the weather today, we went to see the Tall Ship in Glasgow Harbor. It is a restored triple mast sailboat that was used 200 years ago. They have done a great job of restoring it and you can go on board and see what life was like for the sailors while they worked. We all loved it and enjoyed the outing even in the cold.

I will post pictures from the last few weeks asap and will do my best to update once a week! Thanks for checking in and God's blessings to each of you!

Early Christmas

Celebrating Thanksgiving late and Christmas early really changed the holidays for us this year! Even though it was busy getting ready for both holidays, we did not seem to be quite so harried as I've been in years past. Anyway, we loved the school programs and the boys each enjoyed Christmas parties at school. We made and decorated cookies for Santa, enjoyed playdates withfriends and had many discussions about how Santa was going to fit down our wee chimney!

We had a special visit from St. Nick on Saturday the 15th and we enjoyed exchanging gifts with each other that day as well. We put on our PJs Friday night and did not get out of them until Sunday morning! It was absolutely fantastic. The boys loved playing with their new toys and games and we enjoyed sharing a quiet day at home with our family

We are excited to be sitting in the Newark Airport awaiting our plane to Dallas. We are on our way to Arlington to see the Nicols, Dallas to see friends and then we'll be off to Shreveport next weekend to see the FitzGeralds.

We wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. If we do not see you stateside, know that we are thinking of you this holiday season!

Blessings to each of you, love the MacNicols

Jamie the Fox

I've been meaning to tell you all that we have the BBC Autumnwatch's very own "Jamie" the fox that lives in our neighborhood. We see him often and sometimes get to see him very closely.

The family that lived in this house before us included the BBC photographer Gordon Buchanan and he started filming these local foxes for a program called Springwatch on the BBC. Then they followed up with Autumnwatch which aired shortly after we arrived. Apparently there is a large population of chip shop foxes in Glasgow. The boys have enjoyed seeing him and we recorded the program from BBC and of course they love to see this local celebrity. They think it is so cool that Jamie lives in our yard some days!

check out their website if you are interested in seeing him.......

http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/nature/uk/autumnwatch/

School Christmas Programs

Well, I have to say that it was quite refreshing this year to see not one but two new school Christmas Programs. After 7 years at the same pre-school in Dallas, I was eager to see something other than the basic/traditional nativity story. The boys had fun and were proud to have us come and see each of their performances.

The Prep 1 and Prep 2 classes put on the "Bossy King." It is the story of a greedy, bossy king that is mean to his servants. The towns people quickly show him that there is a great King, much better that then Bossy King and he is "Ruler of all Heaven and Earth, and His name is Jesus!" The children sang, narrated and performed the program magnificently! Bravo to Christopher and his friends. Christopher was in one of the singing groups.

The Prep 3 through Trans classes had a program about Christmas Around the World. Each class shared a story and and song about the way that different cultures celebrate Christmas. It was really cute and Ethan's grade sang about Spain. The show was wonderful and Ethan had fun being a part of it!

We are really enjoying The Glasgow Academy and all that we are experiencing there!

Quirky Things

I've been meaning to tell you all about a few things we find to be different/quirky here:

Trolleys (grocery carts) do not go straight when you push them. They go sideways. Maybe the Scots fell like they are going straight because of the beverages they've consumed? Anyway, it's very difficult to push a trolley full of groceries with a wiggling child inside. I do think this gets easier over time because everyone else does not seem to be having a hard time like me! I've hit a few people as well. Yikes!

Dry Cleaning - next time you go into your local dry cleaners, please give them a big smile and thank you! It is soooooo expensive to dry clean your clothes here. It's 5 pounds ($10) an item. Of course part of that goes along with the weak dollar and that everything is much more expensive here but we've noticed this to be especially true. You also have to wash your shirts before you go so they will iron them. Needless to say, I've purchased an iron and am learning which items really have to be dry cleaned and which ones can be washed on the wool cycle.

Driving - My brother Todd asked me recently how we were getting along with the driving rules here. Well, we've gotten quite used to it; so much that we both have already received a ticket! There are speed cameras everywhere and they constantly shoot ya. On one particular part of a major road, the speed limit is 30 kilometers which is pretty slow for 6 lanes of road. It' s one the way to the hardware store and we've gotten 2 little notices in the mail to say we were busted! Darn it. They have a point system here and each ticket is 3 points and you are only allowed 10 points and then they take away your license. We've slowed down.

Bookings - if you want to have dinner out, it is almost mandatory that you have a booking (reservation) to get a table. We went to a restaurant on Wednesday, walked in off the street without a booking, the restaurant was half empty, but they wouldn't let us have a table because they were fully booked. They could give us a table in 30 minutes which of course is the same as waiting at a restaurant in Dallas but to see all of these empty tables and be turned away is new to us! We walked next door to see about that restaurant and they couldn't seat us for the rest of the evening. We're learning to book in advance. I think people here must be good about keeping their bookings because the system is working for these restaurants.

Credit - as we have had to re-establish our credit in our new homeland and we are learning as we go. One of the things we learned that quite surprised us; if you are renting and you have no credit history, your new credit is tied to the previous renters at your address! Can you believe? Thankfully there was a reputable family that lived in our house prior to our arrival. This really surprised us.

Anyway, these are just a few observations about things that are different here in Scotland! Have a great day!