Jan 2024
I’ve been rubbish at posting over the last month or two but that’s been for two reasons:
- I’ve been enjoying a nice break from my computer. At some point, I’m going to have to find some more work/pitch for projects but for now, this is the first time since I was 13 I haven’t been obsessed with working.
- The house is finally starting to come together. We’re still very much at the beginning but my room/office is now complete. The bathroom is almost finished and the utility room should be complete this week. We’ve picked out the new kitchen and work should be starting on the living room next week.
In between ignoring laptops and picking out wallpapers and flooring, we enjoyed a very calm, quiet Christmas.
We did originally say we were just going to ignore Christmas this year, we had a lot of work to do and more important things to spend money on but we relented a bit the week before Christmas.
The day before Christmas eve, I saw a heavily reduced tiny potted tree when doing a food shop so I though a little bit of festive decoration wouldn’t hurt.
Despite deciding we didn’t want a proper Christmas dinner, James got too tempted by the turkeys so he ended up cooking a full festive feast. We’d also agreed we weren’t going to do big presents, James asked for a Lego set he’d seen and I asked for a dressing gown and slippers (anything that keeps me warm right now is perfect!). Usually I love buying presents but this year, the house has to take the financial priority.
Christmas morning
We started with our usual stockings – with no children this probably seems silly but one Christmas tradition from my childhood I’ve kept was presents aren’t opened until the afternoon, after lunch. Stockings mean you’ve got something to open and play with in the morning and you still have a few presents to look forward to later in the day.
Whilst Elodie watched from her dog bed in the bedroom (well, it’s really a two seater cuddler but she’s a special princess), the boys hopped up on the bed and helped open some presents and shred some paper.
The Christmas walk
We opted for an easy walk close to home. We headed down the old railway line to Dornoch then back along the golf course path and beach.
It wasn’t too cold and it stayed dry. Whilst it was a walk the dogs do about once a week, it’s still a good 90 minutes where they get some good sniffs and the boys can have a quick run along the beach on the way home.
Christmas afternoon
Whilst James cracked on with the dinner (Christmas dinner is his thing, he gets very excited about it so apart from coming in to see how he’s doing, I just let him get on with it), I popped some cheesy Christmas movies on and arranged the dogs for the usual Christmas photos.
I do this every year and have a nice back catalogue now that always makes me smile to look back on.
Osric’s Christmas photo – you can tell he’s not impressed with this fake posing as there’s no goofy grin on his face!
Elodie’s 6th Christmas in her forever home
Shadow’s 5th Christmas in his forever home
Because James didn’t start cooking until 2:00pm (and because James is very much a ‘if something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right’ kinda person) and because I’m a vegetarian and therefore he’s essentially cooking two meals, we weren’t sitting down to eat until 8:00pm. For a last minute addition to the day (he usually spends several weeks planning Christmas dinner and looking up and testing recipes), it was the usual top notch feast he can be relied on to produce. Absolutely delicious. Nothing fancy, no elaborate side dishes, just a really good Christmas dinner.
By the time we got round to opening our presents, including those sent up by friends and family, it was gone 11:00pm before we were ready to head up to bed.
All in all, it was a lovely day. Nice walk, good food and spending it with the beings (both human and animal) that matter most to me in the world.
Saying that, throughout the day, we kept talking about next year – when the house is finished, when it’s insulated and warmer, when the electric companies aren’t gouging us for four figures per month to power it, when we can have some family up to visit – and what is becoming our house moto, it’ll be lovely when it’s done!
Crimbo limbo
James had a few days off between Christmas and New Years so we cracked on with DIY and house stuff.
We had what is becoming a bi-weekly pilgrimage down to Inverness to run to DIY shops. This time we took the dogs with us and had a little walk along the River Ness and the Caledonian Canal. Parking by the Dochgarroch Locks.
As we had chores to complete, limited daylight and it was very cold, we walked for 45 mins before turning around and walking back. Whilst it was pretty enough, it reminded me of walks back in my home town along the River Severn by the Ribbsford Woods and the Wyre Forest. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing but it was only on the walk back that the view felt a bit more Scottish.
As James has never managed to grow out of his obsession with Nessie, we had a little drive along the A82 through Drumnadrochit and down to Fort Augustus. Being two days before New Years Eve, it was absolutely heaving with coach loads of tourists come to enjoy a Scottish Hogmanay.
New Years Eve – Dornoch Street Party
I’m not really a fan of New Years Eve. I think back to my teenage and student days when there was always so much pressure to find the perfect party and have the perfect time and more often than not, I’d just be left with a heavy head and a light bank account. But James does like New Years, he used to like going to friend’s house parties and he still follows the old tradition of taking a piece of coal out the house for a walk at midnight.
This year had to be different though – you can’t live in Scotland and not at least acknowledge Hogmanay. We headed into Dornoch which each year has a huge street party.
It was brilliant. Even though there were thousands of people all packed into this tiny little down we still managed to bump into our neighbours. There were as many younger people as there were older but there was no rowdiness or attitude, just lots of people there to celebrate the new year in good spirit.
There was a live band playing traditional Scottish music with the obligatory bagpiper of course. For most the songs, there was a space in front of the band that had people doing ceilidh dancing. I loved watching this and I’d love to learn to dance like this, maybe I can drag James along to some classes?
And come midnight, the New Year was played in by a piper on top of the Dornoch Castle.
As someone who isn’t a fan of large crowds, loud noise or staying up past 10:00pm, I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It was just such a lovely atmosphere and everyone was just happy. I’ve never seen an event like this before but thinking of large crowds or music events back down south or in the midlands, there’s always someone who’s kicking off, someone who has drunk more than they can handle or someone just generally making it uncomfortable for everyone else but there was nothing like that here.
It was just good fun in a lovely atmosphere and the perfect way to bring in the New Year for our new life up here 🙂
Here’s to 2024 and the start of our new life in our new Highland Haven.
My Highland Haven 