The Dundee Ball

Mother very bravely drove us to Dundee. Riding beside her, I remembered how stressful driving is! I don't miss it at all! Plus she's driving standard. . . there was construction and too many roundabouts, and we (Winnie & Denise were riding in the back) had to stop for directions SEVERAL times! But we made it to Dundee about an hour late, and the dance was very nice.

The infamous Elder Snee was there, and he was very excited to show off his 3 PIECE SUIT! Haha! He bought it just for Dylan, though it cost £20 more!

The live band, and the Scottish YSA dancing.

They had quite a spread at the Dundee Ball.

Mother, me and Scott Snee in his 3 piece suit!

The live band was very good. They sang new songs like "I've got a feeling" (Blackeyed Peas), plus Abba songs, 80's songs, etc. At one point, though, they asked if anyone wanted a Scottish dance. The whole room cheered. So they did one Scottish dance, and I danced with Elder, I mean, Scott Snee. He was very friendly and said "I can't wait to write to Dylan!"

Winnie and me at the dance.

I tried loading a wee video of the dance. I HOPE IT WORKS!!!! Let me know. 

Frosty wind made moan...

This morning was so beautiful! On the way to work, at about 6:45, I felt as though it was frosting. It wasn't even what people call a "dusting" of snow - it was glimmering, cold crystals coming down silently and softly. (I just learned on the online weather they called it "freezing fog"!) On my walk home at 10:30 all the bare branches, all the leaves were covered with this fuzzy frost. All the leaves along University Gardens looked like lambs ears, they were all soft and glimmery with frost.

The frosty yard below - outside my window

On a warmer note, a very odd thing happened yesterday: a package was delivered to me - on a Sunday? I've never heard of such a thing. It was, however, a package that Heather sent 3 weeks ago, so I am heartily grateful to have it at last. In said package were some Charlie Brown Christmas window stickers, so I include a few pics of these & my other decorations:

Some Christmas and winter pictures I put up.

I put some of my stickers on my mirror

. . . and some in my window.

Winter scenes

Just some things I saw around town.

A lovely crow in a frosty tree.

A kitty snowman! Oh how cute!

Hannukah and Advent

I have only lit my menorah once so far (I was a little paranoid about setting off the smoke alarm) but all was well, and the candles looked so beautiful!

Also, last night was the 2nd night of Advent. I went to a REALLY amazing advent concert at 7:30. The group is called The Madrigirls that was formed at the university ten years ago. They sang a lot of medieval songs, it was glorious. When I came home I had advent with Heather, Michael and Katie via Skype, which was very nice.

My favorite thing about the advent candles is seeing them grow short. So I  made a shorter candle!

Some more of my X-mas decorations

What the postman brought

I took this picture last night before going to bed. The red glow of the lights is so pretty!

Today I was able to flesh out my Christmas decor in my room (so far I had my advent "candle", my advent calendars and my tree). On Wednesday I ordered a star to put on top of my tree (I don't care for Christmas tree angels) and it came today! Not only that, but Heather sent me a package, within which were some of my favorite Xmas decorations (including my Linus toy which I didn't take a picture of!). Here are some pictures:

One of my advent calendars, a lovely mini nativity Heather let me borrow, a mini menorah (with birthday candles!) and my very favorite nutcracker - I have loved this nutcracker since I was a wee girl.

Ooh! Look at that lovely star! 

To buy a Christmas Tree!

Today I just couldn't wait any longer. I had to have a tree! So I went down to the corner of Great George Street and Byres Road where they have a little stall selling trees, and I bought one (it was shamefully expensive, so I won't tell you how expensive!)

When the fellow selling the trees had wrapped it all up (and put a stand on it! Yay!) he asked me where my car was. "Oh!" I said blithely, "I'm walking!" He looked a little surprised by this declaration and said, "Em, let me take you in my van." So, he drove me to my flat (very close to it, in any case. It's hard to get to the street on account of one-way roads). So that was a blessing indeed. I think it would have been an awkward and troublesome burden the ten minutes it would have taken me to walk home.

I wore my santa hat today to be extra festive. I got lots of compliments on it, actually!

My lovely tree - a Fraser Fir

Here it is bedecked with little red lights!

Happy St Andrew's Day!

Today is St Andrew's Day - the patron saint of Scotland. To celebrate, I bought myself a wee St Andrew's Day cake:

It snowed a little bit more today (!) These are some of the pictures I took around the main gate, and by the main university buildings:

I don't think you can tell, but it was snowing.

Main gates and buildings from up by the library