Her visit meant that we got out to see the place, capturing glens...
...churches (& ancient keeills)...
... castles...
... and scenic spots, like the Sound at sunset:
But, of course, the main thing was Christmas, which had been taking shape for some time with a tree & stockings:
The stockings, however, went to the fireplace via childrens' feet:
A letter too was finely dictated for Jishag y Nollick:
When Christmas Eve was upon us we did what we always do - head out to Dhoon for the service there, before heading home for the the exciting sleep:
Of course, the boys woke up very early - 5:15am was when they were both up, leaping about in their room with excitement. It was a long time before we were all awake enough to open the presents in the lounge, but there was much excitement when we did:
Here you see Orry with one of his Instant-Hit presents - a large-size calculator. Nothing special, nothing child-like; no noises or the like. Orry loved it! - He'd been really into numbers for weeks before, just enjoying seeing and naming numbers (which made the walk home from dancing extremely long, as each house number had to be called out).
The drum set, in contrast, was not a present to Orry, but one from him, to me (James). It had been selected upon a trip to the second hand shop with Cori, and Orry was adament that it was something that I would like. Be that as it may, it was certainly him who happily settled in to play them as soon as they were set up!
Finn, in case it needed to be said, received and enjoyed lots of new Lego:
Both of the boys enjoyed Orry's ridiculous little remote control car:
Without pictures is the Christmas meal at Finn & Orry's cousins' house. Too much food was had, in good Christmas traditions. Also as is tradition, Finn tried to tell jokes inspired by the crackers to make everyone laugh, but they were mostly just baffling!
We do, however, have a picture of Orry's gift for Granny, which he shocked us all by copying her name onto brilliantly. We'd never tried him for writing before, so this was really amazing for us!
The 26th of December - St. Stephen's Day - of course, took us out to Hunt the Wren. Since Andey was with us, we decided to go South to Port St. Mary, where we knew there'd be lots of people and would be most impressive, which it was:
Especially appreciated was getting into the warm pub at the end:
After the Manx tradition, following by the pub, we moved on to St. John's for the next Manx tradition followed by the pub. This time it was Cammag - which I successfully survived without getting hurt or broken! I don't have any pictures from that, but happily there is a video of the event, which looks like this...
[video]
So, all-in-all, a lovely Christmas. Indeed, sufficiently lovely that we've got nothing more to say of the rest of the year, so distinctly indistinct is it in comparison. So, for the final image of 2017, here is Finn's picture (the interview and picture creation being his homework) looking back at his great-grandfather's Christmas' of his youth , selecting a good tree for the home and singing carols around the family piano.
Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa! / Merry Christmas and a happy new year!
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