A Wee Christening Cup for the Wee One

We had a pleasant surprise in the mail today from Dan's cousin John, wife Jane, and lovely daughters Emma, Laura, and Megan from Fort Augustus in Scotland near Loch Ness. http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/fortaugustus/fortaugustus/index.html In a wee box was a beautiful Christening Cup with "Nickolas Julian, 23.9.2007" engraved on it. We were so tickled by the gift.

We certainly look forward to when we can take Nickolas 'across the pond' to visit his cousins and see the famous monster. Below is a photo of Laura and Emma gracing us with their musical talents and Dan with his 'cool cousin' John.

What Is Aunt Flora describing?

Aunt Flora is describing:

A. How much violent crime has increased due to Labour's extreme gun control laws;

B. How long one needs to wait for a doctor's visit under the National Health Service;

C. How happy she is to have a Scottish Prime Minister;

D. How much it rained while we were in Scotland; or

E. How much her family loves her?

Answer: All of the above.

Willow Tea Room

I believe that these photos were taken at the Willow Tea Room. We had visited a Rennie Macintosh exhibit at the Kelvingrove earlier. My better half was struck by how Macintosh seemed to serve as a precursor to Frank Lloyd Wright. She's awesome. She is also obviously technically more sophisticated when it comes to posting photos on this website.

Duncan and Flora's Golden Anniversary

Per an earlier post, please find attached hereto a photo of Aunt Flora and Uncle Duncan and two family photos on the occasion of their golden anniversary. We had the extreme honor of attending the event in Dunoon. Their two wonderful children, John MacKillop and Wee Flora (a.k.a, Flora Drummond) organized an astonishing array of events for their parents and relatives from three continents. The photo is of two of the most wonderful people you could ever hope to meet - despite their being ferociously pro-Labour with a slight SNP twinge.

Choo-Choo

We put together a very simple train set in the sun room while in Kentucky, primarily for the older children. Infatuated with the moving pieces, Nickolas pulled himself upright and closely tracked the train's progress. The other children enjoyed the train, but seeing Nickolas so excited was one of the trip's many highlights for us. The outfit he is wearing in this photo was a gift from Aunt Margaret. She is a perfect angel. As I posted last night, our aunts rule! Aimee and I were blown away when we received Aunt Margaret's gift. The clothes were just the right size and Aimee said that they were in styles we couldn't find here. Everyone compliments the Wee One when he is dressed in his Scottish duds. He doesn't have quite the sartorial flair of his grandfathers, but he far exceeds his dad.

Happy Birthday to the World's Greatest Aunt

My Aunt Flora is a genuinely wonderful person and today is her birthday. Aunt Flora is my mother's kid sister and she made our most recent trip to Scotland utterly fantastic. It was our honeymoon as well as Aimee's first trip abroad and we've probably never had a better time.

Aunt Flora and her loving husband, Uncle Duncan, took care of us in every conceivable way. We spent a lot of time in Dunoon and then they took care of getting us to the Isle of Mull where we stayed in Tobermory. Aunt Flora, Uncle Duncan, and my mother were born on Mull.

We've sent them many photos of Nickolas, but one reason we started this website was that we kept crashing our relatives' e-mail systems with large photo files.

So Aunt Flora, thank you again for a phenomenal time in Scotland and Aimee and I look forward to reciprocating the next time that you're stateside.

I'm having difficulty uploading a photo from the Scotland trip, so please accept the one above of Aunt Flora's older sister holding the Little Pup as temporary substitute.