We got our Christmas tree!

The holidays always make me feel the most American. Maybe it's because my Mom always went all out celebrating any holiday when we were younger or because they just make you feel nostalgic in general or maybe it's because Americans have an enthusiasm that cannot be rivaled, especially in times of real celebration.

We get excited at the drop of a hat - something I love about our culture and never fully realized until I left the U S of A - and this is especially apparent around holidays. We go wild at the 4th of July, dressing in red, white and blue, setting off fireworks and attending/participating in parades. We throw Halloween parties complete with dry ice, "mud" pie with worms and haunted houses created in the garage. And we cannot celebrate Christmas without a fine, full and fat, real Christmas tree.

I searched high and low for a cute Christmas tree farm with hot apple cider and candy canes close to Edinburgh. I had no luck. I found one such place near the Scottish Borders but it wasn't open yet (and didn't have hot apple cider) and I had already decided I wanted a tree today (well, Sunday). If anyone does, however, know of anywhere you can go cut down your own tree here, please let me know for next year. Or I might just have to go get another one this year.

Anyway, we did see that our old trusty friend, Gorgie City Farm (where we met Santa last year) was selling trees and I thought this was probably as "cute" as we could get considering it is a kid friendly destination, it's close and we knew they were selling trees this year. I, as always, was concerned about timing because Freddie sometimes doesn't wake up from his afternoon nap until 3:30pm and the farm shuts at 4pm in the winter (sidebar- it is SO dark here. Always.).

So, I tweeted them and asked what time they sell the trees 'til. I was proud of myself for utilizing this social networking platform that I typically consider too overwhelming (it's impossible to keep up with everyone's tweets!) except for the case of entering blog competitions, which has become a favorite pastime. And, lo and behold, they tweeted back! Good news was- they were open until 8 so there was no need to rush. And, moral of that story, I might just have to use twitter more.

Here are some pics of us picking out the tree, shoving it in the car and decorating it at home. Freddie is SO excited about it and every morning runs in and points at every single ornament. I can't wait to see what he does when Santa comes!

It's Christmas in Edinburgh

The big wheel has enclosed gondolas now- classy!

The city of Edinburgh turned on its Christmas lights on Sunday and, not ones to miss an occasion, William, Freddie and I walked into town with our friend Anthony to take in the festivities. I was expecting to see people sipping on mulled wine, snacking on crepes with nutella and some overall holiday cheer. What we got, simply, was millions of people! It. was. PACKED.

Once we weaved our way through the crowd we took in the activities in St. Andrew's Square (carousel, gingerbread factory, a scary version of the swing ride, etc.) and then saw a pretty cool fireworks display. After that we found solace in the Princes Street Gardens and the cute train ride they have set up there. With lots of room to roam, this was the best place to be for Freddie and us crowd-sensitive adults.

Apparently the Christmas festivities in Edinburgh this year have been completely revamped. It's all been organized by a different group of people than usual and, from first glance, seems more involved (in a good way) and a bit classier. Only complaint- the ice rink is a lot smaller! 

Checkin' out the train and rockin' the Rudolph hat.

All in all, it was a great evening out "on the town" and, despite not getting the gingerbread lattes we wanted, a fun way to kick off the Christmas season. (What can we do- there's no Thanksgiving here!) Ho ho ho!

None of us felt the need to put on make-up. Ha!

Photo of the week: Freddie in the leaves!

The days seem to be alternating between Fall and Winter as far as temperatures go but we were lucky enough to have a warm(ish) and blustery Fall morning on our hands today. Freddie and I celebrated this small miracle by playing in the piles of leaves in Holyrood Park.

The park (or Queen perhaps?) employs a couple of leaf-blowers to blow all of the leaves into long lines and piles for a tractor with some sort of combine harvester (I think that's what it says on the side of it) to pick up. Lucky for us (and unlucky for them) are the days when we get to the piles before the tractor!

Freddie loves running through the piles, inspecting individual leaves and throwing them in the air. It's definitely an activity that reminds me of my childhood (we used to go door to door and ask our neighbors if we could bring their leaves to our yard to make our mound bigger) and the best part is- we didn't even have to rake them up!