December Round Up

We thought we were going to have a busy December and had plans to do all sorts of things that we have either not fancied previously or just not organised ourselves sufficiently to do. As previously mentioned, the weather put paid to doing a lot of those things that relied on being able to cross the barriers safely in the dark  this year, but for what it's worth

 

 

 

We went to the switching on of the village Christmas Tree. It was absolutely freezing and we made the mistake of turning up ten minutes early....there was a great turn out though, the oldest inhabitant pressed the buttons after a 10 second countdown and then we all took grateful shelter in the village hall to warm up and partake of punch and nibbles. It was a fun evening.

 

 

Next up was the Christmas Soup Lunch at the Cathedral.

 

 

 

There's one of these every month in the winter but the December one is always a bit special - this is an OH photo special, so not the picture I'd have taken. But you can at least see the tree and some rather jolly napkins etc.In addition to the normal soup, bread and cheese at Christmas there are always home bakes, mince pies and coffee and tea. And for once I think between us we knew everyone else on our table, which was really nice.

 

We missed the lighting of the Norwegian Tree in Kirkwall and the St Lucy Concert because of the weather. But we did get to see the Reindeer. One of the local stores imported some reindeer for the festive season so we made a trip to see them. They weren't doing anything very interesting when we visited, as the photos attest, but I gather that later in the week the white one made a dash for freedom and had to be rounded up in the Lidl carpark! They were Mato and Springbok and I think the white one was Mato, but don't take that as gospel.

 

The shop concerned always has a special top floor display in December, complete with tree, and open fire and lovely foodie gifts.

 

Our own decorations went up quite late - there was a good reason for that but it escapes me now. Anyway, behold our tree -





 

and son No 2 on The Day

 

 

Once again it was just the three of us as Son No 1's in-laws always insist that that branch of the family go to them, which is hurtful as we'd like to share a Christmas with them now and again, something which doesn't seem to occur to the 'other side',  but there's no point in getting bitter. We enjoyed  the Christmas that we had, which after all is the main thing.