And then...

On Christmas Day, Son, Daughter-in-Law and The Unbloggable Toddler came down - Son was working on Christmas Eve and again on the 27th, so they could only stay one night. We all went to the playpark. Here's The Unbloggable Toddler swinging...

... and here's Son with his niece, Littlest.

The house was quite full with us all in it. Just for that one night, there were 11 of us sleeping in the house - and with four bedrooms and two bathrooms, that's quite a lot, especially as TUT needs a room to herself because she's only recently become a good(ish) sleeper. It was fine, though. At the fullest point, we had Niece in the sitting room on a sofa, Daughter 2 and SIL 2 in the dining room on a blow-up bed and Littlest in the study... well, at least for the part of the night when she slept... .

And there were 15 to dinner, which would be easy enough if there weren't six vegetarians among us, some of us rather fussy. (Or - looking at it another way - if the other nine weren't carnivores... .) Also, one son-in-law is diabetic and the other has a nut allergy. But we all got fed.

It would have been even easier if I hadn't had a rotten cold and sore throat (which I later passed on to my sister-in-law - so sorry!) and Littlest hadn't been keeping some of us from sleeping rather a lot.

Look at her - she has a completely clear conscience as she prepares to empty my recycling bin

and, for the umpteenth time, takes all the Elastoplast and micropore tape and antiseptic ointment out of the drawer.

Then, on various days, all the young ones went away, alas, and then my brother and his wife and the pair of us went to the BP Portrait Exhibition in the rather impressive Portrait Gallery. The portraits were amazing.

This one won first prize. I love it.You can't see it very well on this postcard, but some of the items on the table look as if they're magically spinning.  

We walked home afterwards. I would hate to live somewhere so big that you couldn't walk home if you really wanted to.

Then on Hogmanay (New Year's Eve) we brought in the New Year at Daughter 1's, which was lovely,

and later she and her family, including her lovely parents-in-law, came to dinner with us and Mr L's cousin.

And that's what happened in the last couple of weeks - except that today we heard that Son and Daughter-in-Law's new baby, due in May, is a boy. Grandson is very happy. "Yay!" he said. "It's not usually a boy." ("It" being a new baby in the family - though actually he does have a baby boy cousin on his dad's side.) He is the patriarch of the cousins.

And we're all excited and looking forward to meeting the New Unbloggable Baby. Or NUB.

Back!

Well, Happy New Year! There's a bit of me that can't quite bear to think of another year starting with none of last year's sorrows alleviated; but that's not the attitude, is it? - so onward and upward, counting all blessings. Such as the little person above and below, Littlest Granddaughter, who's a home wrecker and DOESN'T SLEEP DURING THE NIGHT but we love her so much anyway.

Thanks so much to Thicket House, who noticed my longer-than-usual absence. I'm touched. It was just due to having family to stay - I didn't want to lose time with them. Daughter 2 and Littlest were here from the 18th till the 30th, my brother and sister-in-law were here from the 22nd till today, with various others arriving and departing at various times in between.

Littlest (what am I going to call her if Son and DIL have another girl? - we'll discover whether it's a girl or boy tomorrow) is at the stage of tottering fairly efficiently but often preferring to hold a hand or some piece of furniture for extra safety.

Daughter 2 iced the cake, as usual. She's not getting much sleep, poor soul (see above) so it wasn't quite as elaborate as often, but it's rather elegant all the same. Or should I say, it was rather elegant before much of it got eaten.

Not very long before Christmas I finished the quilt for my niece: my tenth. The middle bit is quite simple but I was pleased to succeed (more or less) in making a half-square triangle border. I do like making quilts: it's not really difficult (at my level), just a bit fiddly, and I enjoy making something that's unique. I mean, I'm sure that my design is far from original but no one's done it in those exact fabrics.

The observant among you will notice that the bottom cream border is broader than the side and top cream borders, in order to make the triangles fit the sides. A proper quilter would possibly have planned ahead and made sure that the middle bit was slightly shorter, but I am not that person.

Here's my niece trying it out.

Next time I feel I need to try something that at least looks more complicated. I need to challenge myself. You think? Not that I'm a great one for challenges... .

Babybabybabybaby

Daughter 2 went to work and so it was this sort of day.

So lovely!

How can it be the 17th already?

 I love how busy children can be - concentrating hard on producing something from their heads. Eldest Granddaughter just made a pretty pattern from stickers,

but Grandson made an educational puzzle - with some festive stickers down at the bottom.

These things have happened: Eldest Granddaughter was a bunny at the stable (er, yes)

while Grandson was a more traditional king.

The tree is up; the turkey is bought and in the freezer; and then this afternoon it somehow seemed imperative to reorganise the toy cupboards instead of doing something more sensible in the way of Christmas preparations.

Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter arrive tomorrow, hurray hurray. D2 is then out for Christmas parties at lunchtime that day and in the evening, and will be working in the near-Edinburgh office for the rest of the week, so Mr L and I will be in charge of Littlest (and not much else will get done). Then my brother and his wife arrive on Saturday, our niece and SIL2 on Sunday and the holiday season can begin in earnest. Perhaps I need to think a little bit further about food, and maybe even wrap some presents.

Meanwhile the house is slightly less tidy than usual because of the cupboard reorganisation. Still, deadlines are good, don't you think?

(And, now that I look at the date I see that tomorrow it will be 51 years since Mr L and I started going out together. How can that possibly be?)

Gieing it laldy

I've been spending lots of time finishing off the quilt for my (only, but also - of course - best) niece, instead of preparing for Christmas. However, it's nearly finished now so I really must start getting things organised. I've done the cards and got quite a few presents but there are little things like decorations and food to consider. We'll be 15 at Christmas dinner (two of these fairly small, mind you) and 11 staying overnight - though we might have to farm some people off to Daughter 1's - haven't quite worked it out yet. Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter arrive next Tuesday - I can't wait, but on the other hand we'll be babysitting while she works at the near-Edinburgh office, so not much will get done next week.

Meanwhile Daughter 1 and I took the little ones to the Botanics At Night light show - above.

And Eldest Granddaughter made some Christmas pictures, such as the Three Kings above, one of whom has glasses like her. There's also a touch of Peppa Pig about the noses.

And this, which is apparently a singing snowwoman dressed up as Elsa from Frozen. She's gieing it laldy, as we say here (ie putting her all into it).

And, while it's not actually freezing here, it's been dreich today - the sort of day when you have the lights on all day - but I had a lovely coffee and catch-up with a friend at Queensferry and am now theoretically sorting out various things on my desk which have been neglected because of the quilt. Although of course I've been diverted into blogging instead... .

But this will not do! On! On!

It's coming...

Well, Happy Advent! Doesn't it all come round quickly? Not that the grandchildren think so; but give them 60 years and they will. Still, it's a lovely time of year, made lovelier by this box of Advent presents that Daughter 2 - having nothing to do but look after a baby who doesn't sleep much, and work four days a week in a responsible job - kindly made up for us. So sweet!

This was the first present. Very cute!

We went for a hike with our walking friends on Saturday. We plodded through a slightly rainy and distinctly muddy East Lothian, passing these very typical cottages...

... and coming into Hailes Castle. This is a 13th and 14th century building - somewhat dilapidated these days. Most of it is roofless but the underneath bit - the kitchen? - is accessible and we went in there for mince pies and mulled wine.

And then the rain stopped and we walked on to the Linton Hotel for a very nice Christmas meal. When we left and were waiting at the bus stop to return to Edinburgh, all the lights in East Linton suddenly went out! It would have been very dark indeed if we hadn't waved our phone torches around, and luckily the bus did see us, and stopped.

Yesterday we drove over the bridge to go and see Son, Daughter-in-Law and The Unbloggable Toddler.

This is the view from their garden - very nice but sadly not at all near us. However, TUT really seems to recognise us now and has incorporated us into her entourage. She's a lovely little blonde person, very agile and chatty. I must remember not to get too discouraged when her little sibling (due in May) doesn't want anything to do with us. I'll try to be patient and hope that he/she too will get to know us in time.

We went to a playpark. Here are Son and TUT on the flying fox. It was a happy day.

And today I've posted my overseas Christmas cards. It's a start.

Shoes. And noses.

I've just come back from a few days visiting Daughter 2 and Littlest Granddaughter in London. 

On the train down, a mother, father and daughter were near me, dressed to the nines. The parents were sitting together but the daughter was slightly further away, across the corridor.

The daughter's phone rang.

Daughter [To caller]:Oh, really? [To parents, a few seats away]: Keira's not got shoes with her. 

Mother: She can have my boots.

Daughter: Mum says you can have her boots.

Mother: Well, as long as I can walk in my shoes.

Daughter [to caller, presumably her sister]: She says you can have them as long as she can walk in her shoes.

Daughter [to sister]: You must have shoes. [Pause.] Oh, the pink ones. [Pause.] I wouldn't say they were bright pink. What dress are you wearing? Oh, the jumpsuit. [To Mum]: Mum, she's wearing the jumpsuit. [To sister]: No, you can't wear the pink shoes with that. 

Mum: Well, she can have my boots. I'll be able to walk in my shoes. 

Daughter [to sister]: It's all right, Mum says you can definitely have her boots. 

[Pause.]

Father [to mother]: Who's she talking to? 

And they say men don't listen. 

Littlest Granddaughter seems to be concentrating on getting all the illnesses. Shortly after recovering from her chest infection she got, simultaneously: a streaming cold; hand-foot-and-mouth disease (which didn't seem to exist here till a few years ago); and impetigo. Impetigo? I'd heard of it but never knew anyone who got it. The impetigo gave her a very nasty rash round her mouth and chin - her beautiful, soft, squashy little chin - the hand-foot-and-mouth attacked her hands-feet-and-mouth only slightly but gave her a horrible rash at the other end, and the cold did what colds do to her tiny nose. 

All of this meant that she couldn't go to nursery and Daughter 2 had to stay off work at the end of last week to look after her. Thus Daughter 2 went in on Saturday and also yesterday, her normal day off - but by then I was there to babysit. 

Littlest was fairly stoical about all this but is on antibiotics again, extremely nasty-tasting ones which she doesn't like at all. 

We went for a walk and met a nice cat. Though they're both looking at the camera here, they spent several minutes looking at each other, and Littlest burst into wails (luckily fairly short-lived ones) when we at last moved on.

Meanwhile, in the evenings, Daughter 2 made props for the Showstoppers' Kids' show - this is her husband's company. (Good outing for your children, should you be in London.)  The Showstoppers' adult show (not adult in that sense; it's not rude) is starting another run in the West End after Christmas, which is good for them, but which means that Son-in-Law won't be around much at all in the evenings for ten weeks. (Good outing for you, should you be in London.) Time for another trip down to help with the bathing and so on, I feel. (Any excuse... .)

Littlest unpacked my handbag, taking the tissues from their packet. "Are you going to blow Granny's nose?" I enquired, and she held a tissue up and scrubbed my nose vigorously. So clever! So used to having her nose wiped!

And now I'm home. Missing them... .