The Empire Strikes Back

The Southern branch of Alasdair's family are officially in the game.

What a lovely pair of shoes. It would be such a shame if he went splashing through puddles in them.

Merry Christmas

Hope your presents were every bit as exciting as your wrapping paper.

 

Finally Christmasy

Having spent our first weekend back from our holidays avoiding the subject, Nikki and I finally got our decorations up this past weekend. One good thing about delaying was that all trees were 50% off. Our 7 foot Noble Fir cost $17. Woohoo!

Also reduced in price were plastic snowmen with lights that flash on and off. This certainly beats my idea of putting Santa hats on the light up skulls from Halloween.

I think tinsel may also have been reduced, judging by the amount we now have. Nikki, who, for a normally classy girl, has a suspicious fondness for the stuff, insisted on having one tacky room. At least we got the pink stuff up here so that Tim won't mistake it for edible vegetation. He's already been sniffing round the tree a lot.

We also took a spontaneous drive around the other night snapping shots of various displays for inspiration. I definitely need an inflatable santa and/or a 6 foot lit snowman next year...we'll go out again and have a fully charged camera next time., but here are a few we liked:

Brrr

Some of you will be particularly unimpressed with our little flurry, but it's snowing in Houston this evening and temperatures are close to freezing. The 8 white streaks in his picture are actual, genuine, proper snowflakes:

This wouldn't bother us in the slightest if our sodding heating was working. Having replaced the ignitor and control board in March we were a little surprised to find that either the ignitor or the control board are knackered and we can't get the parts until tomorrow. We are not alone, as evidenced by the scrum around the space heaters in Lowe's when I went to pick one up for Alasdair's room. The technician reckons all the power surges during Ike did a load of damage as they've been flat out busy all day.

The little man is not bothered...

...but he is easily distracted by gadgets.

Debut Tour

Here are the rest of the photos from Alasdair's debut tour of the UK. As ever, click through to Picasa to see them bigger.

Let me know in the comments if you want full size versions of any for printing.

Claimed

I know, I know, I said "early next week" and it's now Wednesday and you've had no photos. Sorry. They're downloaded. I'll get them captioned and stuff soon. Meanwhile, here's a photo of Alasdair in his lovely new rugby top that his uncle Alex and auntie Fi bought him.

This means football and rugby are now claimed for Scotland. Sorry. I believe cricket is still up for grabs.

Normal Service Will Resume Shortly

Sorry, I've been having too much fun with my Auntie Angela and my Granny to update the blog. We're back home on Sunday though, so expect more photos early next week.

Alasdair's blog

Dad is going to have to change the name of this blog to Alasdair's blog so I can tell everyone about my first trip to the UK. I arrived at Grandma and Granddad's on Tuesday. Apparently I was perfectly behaved on the flight over but I wouldn't know because I slept all the way. Travelling is very tiring, I even fell asleep on my new playmat I was so tired.

Grandma has a nice big bath for me to play in. It's a great improvement on the kitchen sink at home, I can swim around in this one.

I'm just about getting over the jet lag. I'm sleeping through the night again so I've got more energy in the day to play. This new playmat is so comfy, I hope it fits in the suitcase to take back to Houston. And take note of all my new outfits that I finally get to wear. (Mum wouldn't let me wear them until we got here in case I messed them up)

We went to Bath on Friday for a look at the shops. There was a photo of me outside the Roman Baths but I'm so bundled up in blankets that you can't actually see me so I didn't blog it. We had a nice lunch, all of Mum's food looked really good, can't wait until I get old enough to try some.

And of course I've been into Chepstow a few times. Here's me posing outside the Castle. Maybe next time I visit I'll be awake to see it.

Next week I've got a busy schedule of appointments - cousins, uncles and aunts, Mum's friends - so keep checking back for more updates.

love

Alasdair

Renaissance

We went up to the Renaissance Festival last weekend, it was a lot of fun. Alasdair was so cute and charming that he attracted lots of attention.

In the end we had to disguise him with some cool shades. The day was really sunny and he found it hilarious every time I put these on him. I'll have to get him a pair of his own so I don't lose mine forever.

I also got to have a go on a bungee trampoline thing. It was great, despite the large amounts of greasy deep fried food consumed earlier in the day.

Friday night a couple of the families on the street hosted their annual Halloween party. Here's a bonus photo of two very scary characters...

Boo!