Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful  Christmas and New Year wherever you were, I know I certainly did.  

This year my family and I strayed off our typical path for Christmas.  Typically we run off to ski in the Alps for a week but with my grandma with us and my freshly amputated vacation life (granted it is because I have a job now) we decided to have Christmas at home followed by a trip up to Edinburgh, Scotland!  I know, I know your hearts are all breaking for me right now. (Right? lol)  So here is a brief recount of Christmas and more pictures of Scotland!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Some things don't change however, like the 10 hour flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt although it did pass surprisingly quick.  As I can out of baggage claim I was greeted by my mom, dad and gram waiting for me.  We rushed home so I could get a quick nap in before Christmas Eve dinner.

A shot out over Malsch where my parents live.

Sadly there was no snow this year.  Maybe this whole global warming thing is for real!  It's sad not having snow but it makes life easier getting around.  Germany is still beautiful.

Christmas feast number 1.

I got home Christmas Eve and just in time to be drafted in to helping cook dinner.  I had been dying to have this dinner - a) because it's delicious and b) because I hadn't had red meat in a long time!  We had a very tasty rib roast along with an excellent Amarone, Yorkshire pudding, veggies, and in the background are two pumpkin pies!

Dad carving our roast beast.

After stuffing ourselves like the Thanksgiving turkey we ambled into the living room to watch White Christmas before lumbering off to bed.  The next day was great, we had a Christmas roll for breakfast with bacon then opened presents!  Everyone was delighted, my dad had a mans Christmas getting new power tools, my mom got clothes and a new backpack for their trips (you welcome), and I got a couple new coats!

After getting cleaned up it was time to slave away in the kitchen again for feast number two! (not pictured here)  We had friends over and we cooked our first goose!  Here's an interesting tidbit - not everything tastes like chicken.  Goose taste like roast beef! That night we truly had a feast - goose, ham, sausage stuffing, sweet potatoes, rolls, salad...  Too much to remember!

Then at last we had our fill and rested on Monday.  

Then we prepared to run off to...

Scotland!

Ok those of you in California, and definitely Stockton, probably know about Aliegent Air.  The small airline that operates short flights at bargain prices.  Well we took what used to be the European equivalent - Ryan Air.  (I say used to because now Ryan Air has become an extortionist and is closing in on human rights violations *figuratively*.  Did you hear about and airline considering making you pay to use the bathroom?  Yeah that was Ryan Air.)  Anyways, we had to catch a plane at 7AM to get to Edinburgh which meant leaving the house at 4AM.  NOT a fun way to start a trip, however once we got to Scotland things started to turn around.

One of the main walking streets.

After dropping off our bags at the hotel we grabbed breakfast there.  If you look at my last post here you can see my tasty breakfast of sausage, eggs, chips, and haggis!  That was just enough to fuel our tanks before running off to see the city a little and grab our first pint!  (You did realize this was a pub crawl right?)

Edinburgh Castle

I honestly have no idea what they were so puzzled and appalled by, 

perhaps dad did something wrong!

Grams new boyfriend!

Now many of you are probably wonder - where was Jeff in his kilt!  Sadly I didn't put 2 and 2 together when I was packing for my trip.

A small holiday fest on the Prince's Street.

Arthur's Seat in the distance.

Well those were some of the sights of Scotland that we took in but most of our time was sitting in pubs talking, drinking, and playing cards.  I have some pictures of that but I'll save them for the next post.  I again would like to wish you all happy holidays and thanks for reading!