Merry Christmas!!

Hello friends!!

It's the wonderful season of Christmas - and the first one for Abigail! It's been quite a while since my last posting, so I'll try to get everyone up to speed with what's been going on, this side of the pond.

I think I left off with Mom's visit (see last post for details!) About 2 weeks after she left, we had another guest. There was a revival conference here in Greenock, and some of the churches were asked to host speakers. We volunteered, and Brother Denny Kenaston from Lancaster County Pennsylvania knocked on our door one Saturday night! What fun! We don't know if we were intentionally sent an American, or if God just works like that, but he is an amazing man of God, and we kept him up talking until well past his bedtime several nights in a row. I've linked his name above to his website.

Both Mom & Bro. Denny stayed in our 'guest bedroom' - our finished attic. I've included pictures over on smugmug. Now... Aaron & Louise, please don't faint that we let someone sleep up there!! They both thought it was great fun, and the room is quite spacious for just one person!

The day before Bro. Denny headed home, Matt came down with the flu. In Scotland, women often refer to "the man flu". This is when our tough-guy hubbies get just a bit sick and suddenly... "My head hurts, my stomach hurts, I can't take the trash out... can I have breakfast in bed??" When just the week before when we were sick, they told us to tough it out and pack the kids' lunches. Well, Matt did not have the man flu. As far as I can tell, he had the real flu, which is surprising, since Matt is rarely sick. He couldn't get up to have breakfast with Denny, and just hobbled out of our room to say goodbye. He had a fever of 103 for three days straight. We broke it a couple of times with Tylenol, but it always came back. Matt decided it was better to just let the fever run its course, so he stayed in bed and slept. Over 2 days, he slept 40 out of 48 hours.

Once the fever finally broke, his appetite came back, but he worked from home in his pj's the whole next week, and it took almost 2 weeks for his strength to come back. He still gets cold sometimes, when I'm not even cold (which never happens). We can only assume that it was the real flu, not just a bad cold. We praise the Lord that Abigail and I did NOT get it - we both got head/chest colds, but no fever, chills or aches like poor daddy :-(

That brings us up to the beginning of December. December has been pretty quiet. Matt went out with Aaron's outdoors-pal, Grant, to hike a Munroe. (One of the tallest mountains in Scotland) They hiked through knee deep snow, and occasionally punched through to their waists, and had to use an ice-axe to dig themselves out. Of course, Matt had a blast.

Last week, my knitting club had their Secret-Santa gift exchange. (Did I tell everyone that I knit now? It's TOO much fun, and I've bought myself some really nice knitting needles with Christmas money. They should be here in a few days!) Since Abigail came, I haven't been able to go to the club, since it meets in a pub at 8pm - no children after 8, plus it's Abby's bedtime. Recently, Abigail has been going to bed and staying asleep at 7:30, so I have been going out for a nice night with the girls while Matt stayed home (with a back-up bottle just in case!) Well, I missed the name-drawing for the Secret Santa exchange, but I was ok with that, and came along to the party anyway. Our wonderful club-coordinator, Abigail-loving, all-around-wonderful-person Karen knew I had missed out and knit an extra gift just for me. It was a felted wool purse (hand-bag in the UK), bright red and gorgeous! I don't wear red very much, so I plan on using it to hold knitting projects, until I find something red to wear with it!

Last Saturday (the 20th) the church had our ladies Christmas Dinner at the Tontine hotel. It was SO much fun and the food was delightful. I had cream of broccoli soup and a roll to start, salmon and roast potatoes with vegetables and grain-mustard mashed potatoes for the main, and traditional Christmas pudding for dessert. Then they brought coffee and mints, then they brought mince pies!! We were all SOOO full, that we moved over to the sofas after dinner, and the last of us finally left at 11pm! I wore a long, red dress and my wedding jewelry (and yes, I took my red hand-bag and it matched perfectly!) It's so much fun to get all dressed up for a night with the girls! I miss all my girls back home, but I'm glad to have finally found new friends to have fun with.

I'm writing this blog just a few days before Christmas. I think it will be a very quiet one. The atmosphere before Christmas is different here. Still lights and Christmas trees in homes, and in the mall, but it's different, somehow. I haven't been planning Christmas dinner with the girls, haven't been having all-day cookie baking, didn't decorate the whole house - we just put our tree up last week! Partly, it's too much with Abigail still being so small. She takes up quite a bit of one-on-one time, and can't really play by herself yet. Partly, it's because there are only 2 of us, and there is no point in cooking a huge meal or dozens of cookies (which makes it feel Christmassey). I think it's also because I didn't make Thanksgiving dinner, which usually kicks off the holiday season. AND - I can't get Pandora Internet radio here! It's not licensed in the UK... and I worked really hard on perfecting a classic Christmas station last year - I've not heard hardly any Christmas music.

All of these things put together have made it seem not-quite like Christmas. Matt and I decided that Abigail needed a Wii for Christmas... but we got it in early November, so we just have small presents under the tree for Christmas morning. Yes... Abigail needed it. She also needed Guitar Hero, Quantum of Solace, and Mario Kart. Yes...

Speaking of Abigail, now I guess I'll write about her (that's what everyone is waiting to hear about, anyway... ;-) Abigail has had her first 2 sets of shots, and she did very well and hardly cried. She will be 4 1/2 months old on Christmas Day, and she has definitely hit her 4-month growth spurt! She does so many new things now! She started out by sucking her thumb in her sleep several weeks ago. SOOO CUTE!! She also enjoys tummy-time, finally. She won't stay down on the floor for too long, but likes to lay on my tummy so she has something to look at while she's down there! She rolled over once, but hasn't done it again. She still loves to look at lights, but also notices when someone comes into the room, and she follows them by turning her head and even twisting her upper body, and craning her neck! He peripheral vision is kicking in and she gets easily distracted by anything that moves. She even follows cars and people she can see out the window! Her newest trick is standing up. She has liked standing lightly on her feet since she was about 2 months old, but now she pulls herself up by pulling on your fingers and straightening her legs! She is SOO proud of herself when she gets up there, and gets rewarded with lots of kisses. Then we BOOM back down on Mommy's lap and do it again. Sometimes she has so much fun standing, that she won't bend her legs to sit down. Her grip is very good, although we still hold her wrists when she's pulling up. Her head control is perfect, and now we're working on her tummy muscles. When she's sitting, we just hold her hips, and let her upper body bob around. She can usually keep herself pretty well centered, but if she tips too far over, she still gets stuck and we have to push her back upright again.

We took Christmas photos of Abigail, and sent out some Christmas cards. I'm sorry if you didn't get one, but we have all of her best shots online. Jenny Greer sent an absolutely beautiful black velvet dress along with Mom, and it is the perfect Christmas dress. She has had so many compliments on that dress (and hat!) and I will definately be saving it for the next wee lassie!

Well, I guess this brings me to the end of this posting. Here are the important links:

Photos at SmugMug -
Life in General for the last 2 months
Abigail's Christmas Photo Shoot

Videos on Picassa - since the videos are so big, I'll be taking down old ones to make room for new ones, so there won't be much in the way of archives.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We'll hope to talk to you all in 2009!!

Love from all of us,
Matt, Carrie & Abigail