Welcome to 2014

Sharon headed up to Kirkcaldy on Hogmanay for the funeral of Mary Flaherty, who died a few days ago aged 93. Mary was the cousin of May Coen, Sharon's gran. Sharon got to meet a lot of second and third cousins she'd heard a lot about and enjoyed doing the Irish family thing which she misses, being domiciled in Scotland. Although she was able to "facetime" Marie later now that Marie and Michael have an iPad courtesy of their children. As it was yet another grey day, and I wasn't feeling the best, the boys had another day indoors, a bit of high jinks here and there, some eating and mostly playing electronics.

We didn't make a big thing of them staying up for the bells, we just let them be and saw how it went. Angus did not flag one bit as the minutes and hours ticked by. Had we all sat down and watched TV, I suspect he would have flagged, but he was in tip-top form. If anything, Rowan was the one getting weary and teary as 1030 came and went and we enjoyed a nachos supper. Finally we asked them all to get dressed up for an outdoors walk and so, with the weather pleasantly calm and the temperature reasonable, we drove to Braid Rd, parked, and set off up Braid Hill with a number of other families. Angus insisted on being the torch bearer (after Sharon had piggy-backed him for a stretch) and led the way up the path as the twinkling lights of Edinburgh were revealed to us through the broom. We got to the top with ten minutes to spare and surveyed the stretch of the city, identifying the castle and spotting a fireworks display off to the east somewhere, which seemed to have gone off in advance of midnight. Angus kept asking how long to go and wanted to do a countdown when suddenly the fireworks exploded from the castle and, simultaneously, from Calton Hill. There was a fine display of all sorts, including smiley faces and Catherine wheels and flowery starbursts and, after a slight delay, we could hear the booms too. It was eleven years since we last climbed Braid Hill on Hogmanay with a seven-week old baby Sean in our arms. Now, with Angus four and a half, we finally had children old enough that we could return. We had a family happy new year hug and then made the descent back to the car, home and then into bed. Needless to say, the boys went to sleep pretty quickly, but Angus was up at 0720 on New Year's Day. Not for him, these long lies!

We had a lazy morning, a light lunch and then headed to the Patersons along with the Fletchers, Alison and Phoebe and one or two others, for a pleasant late afternoon of chat and good food served up by Wendy while the boys played out of sight and almost out of earshot. Welcome to 2014, the year when our building work will be finished!