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.