And our first Christmas holiday in our new place is done. It was a crazy, challenging, joyous, amazing, frustrating, wonderful time. And now it draws to a close and we prepare to find a rhythm and routine for the new year.

After a very bad start to our stay, we seem to have turned a corner. We were able to move out of our little temporary space into our larger and cosier space the week of Christmas. Because who doesn’t flit (read: move house) 4 days before Christmas! But when you only have 6 cases worth of stuff plus a few boxes off odds and sods you have accumulated over the first month, it doesn’t take long.

What takes longer is learning new stuff all over again: how to work another microwave; which is the best setting on the washing machine; how to keep the bedroom warm; etc. Since everything is still new, we have no habits to break. And we were lucky enough to have one of our two wonderful children to visit. After many changes to plane tickets to avoid the massive winter storm in the US, Jesse arrived at our tiny Aberdeen airport just before Christmas. We had a week of eating too much, walking a lot, visiting folks, setting up the apartment, trying to cook family favourites in a still unfamiliar kitchen, and many other adventures. We ate fish and chips, take-away Chinese and Indian, several bar lunches, and entire tin of Cadbury’s Heroes.

And then after a week of endless eating, drinking, playing games and watching all the Shrek movies, we are back to being just the two of us. Now to figure out what “normal” might look like – once I actually go back to work that is. I *love* the fact that the university just closes for a fortnight so there’s no guilt about taking time off. And I might actually be a little bored by the time I get back to the office. 🙂

But for now, I share some photos of our joyful holiday and hope that you and yours had a similar wonderful time. And of course, I wish you all the happiest of new years!