Christmas Cuties

This post doesn't have a specific purpose other than to show you some of the cute photos of our kiddies enjoying these weeks leading up to Christmas. We have had a really great time enjoying the spirit of the season.



Ward has joined the bedtime routine so we are loving the family snuggle time. We read part of the Christmas story, a storybook or two and Emerson has become a fan of story-telling in addition to her nightly reading. This is really stretching Mommy & Daddy's creative skills!








We have been baking a lot, Emerson has helped build and decorate a gingerbread house, cut out gingerbread men, make sweet bread for some gifts and tomorrow we are making a birthday cake for Jesus. Some days she bakes up her own concoctions in her kitchen.





This year, we experienced the benefits of an artificial tree for the first time (radiator heat makes a real tree pretty impractical) so we bought one that was pre-lit...our Christmas present to Trey- who HATES wrestling with the lights. This also enabled Emerson to take a very active role in decorating the tree.





And finally Ward, enjoying a day of shopping with Mommy on Princes Street. We were very grateful that PopO and Mylu gave us a new stroller for Christmas so he could nap and enjoy the shopping in style!

Washing Machine

Christmas came early to the Oswald home in the form of a washing machine. For many of you a washing machine may not seem all that exciting, but around here it is pretty big news. Emerson was mesmerized by the fact that she could watch the clothes- this is quite a novelty. Of course this has led to a recently realization that I am going to have to cut back on my daily quotient of sweets now that I am not carrying our laundry (along with Ward) up and down 3 flights of stairs. I guess some sacrifices are worth it!

St Andrews Day at the Castle

Scotland recently celebrated St Andrews Day. While I am not totally sure what this holiday is for, I was quite pleased to learn it means free admission to the National Historic properties. (Trey says it has something to do with church history and the cathedral in St Andrews, but that's not as interesting for our purposes here.) So we headed out for a day at the Edinburgh Castle. For those of you who have never been to Scotland, eventually we will need to get some better Castle pictures up on the blog. As you can see it was a rainy, cold day so the view from the top was not as dazzling as it usually is.

Emerson had already made one trip to see the Castle, but that was before her 2nd birthday. Needless to say, she doesn't remember that visit. Before leaving Atlanta, however, Emerson was given a book called This is Edinburgh. It is a fantastic book that has been teaching her some of the great secrets of of this wonderful city that we live in...including some details about the Castle. While the rain prevented us from enjoying some aspects of our visit, Emerson was very pleased that she got to see the "jewry" translation: jewelry...by which she means the Crown Jewels. We also opted for the other indoor activity- the War Museum. While this would ordinarily be a disaster with a 3 year old...Emerson was shockingly interested. She wanted to know the details of each uniform and why they had different types of helmets (Trey says she is the real future scholar in the family). As I was trying to move her along through the displays she kept asking me to stop and read her the plaques- she never ceases to amaze me (again, Trey says Emerson is way smarter than he is - which, he adds, is not saying a whole lot)!

So despite the fog and rain, it was a great day. We love this city and look forward to exploring it with our children. (Trey says if you want a fairly good description of the view of Princes St from the castle, read the 1960s or 70s novel Marathon Man... And, hopes you are all doing well... whoever you are that reads this. He thinks he's funny.)