Well, I made it back up to gale-force Scotland and back again in one piece.  My brother, his wife and their two boys stopped off for a week at my parents en route from Abu Dhabi to Norway for a snowy sled-filled Christmas.

It was magical spending time with everyone, although Mr ShoeThatAlwaysFits missed out on the fun due to work commitments.  Christmas brings out the child in all of us – me and my brother spent a frantic 20 minutes trying to beat each other at iPad table ice hockey (I won) and a few other games (again, I won).  My big brother then raided the attic and returned triumphant with his toy cars and all of his space lego (circa 1980) – I was delighted as finally, 30 years later, I would finally be allowed to play with it.  Mum told me that he used to build forts between me and his collection of lego to keep me and my little sticky fingers off of his precious toys.  And I can’t say that I was disappointed to watch Christmas DVDs meant for the kids – who knew that Polar Express was so charming?

I had a splendid couple of days getting jumped on, shot, and brainified.  It was fab – even if I was mostly over-fed, hungover and sleep-deprived.

So here’s to a quieter Christmas with me and the Mr, once I leave the office that is.