Denise & David still liked the idea of going away from Edinburgh though so we set to looking at places in Scotland we could go which maximized our potential for snow. Loch Lomond was suggested, but we ended up hitting upon a place in Aviemore in the Cairngorms National Park - if ever there was going to be snow in Scotland, it would surely be here as there were skifields nearby. Transport links were good to, and we found an Airbnb which would comfortably house us. Finally it was all coming together and we were about to book when we were hit by a curveball! Much earlier at Sasha's suggestion I'd contacted my cousin Ellen and her husband Matt to see if they had Christmas plans - but they were going to have Christmas in Wiemar, Germany with Matt's Dad. Literally just as we'd all agreed to book Aviemore, I got a message from Ellen saying Matt's dad was going to be in Brazil at Christmas and they were willing to host Christmas at their place if we wanted. We brought Ellen and Matt into the fold and pitched Aviemore to them - the place we were looking at would accommodate 6 so there was no need to re-plan anything, I think they were a bit taken aback how far along our planning was but agreed they wanted to be a part of it all so we booked it.
All of the above sounds very simple when I write it like that but it wasn't, it really wasn't - trying to get 4 people (and then 6) all on the same page and in agreement took a while. Not because anyone was disagreeing as such, but more we all weren't so crash hot at replying in the affirmative to things in a timely manner! Everything else fell into place after that, with food and drink organised and coordinated, getting to Aviemore figured out and anything else logistically and practically. On these latter points I have to thank everyone for picking up the batons and running with them once we'd locked in Aviemore. Sasha and I also worked out what we were going to do post-Christmas and for New Years, making a holiday out of it and securing the extra leave necessary on my part (with Sasha having finished up work, it wasn't a problem for her). It was going to be a family Christmas in Scotland - with our fingers crossed for snow!
I'm going to do this a bit differently, instead of day-by-day which might make sense, I'm going to split it into two parts - Christmas itself, and then the post-Christmas travels.
Part 1 - Christmas in Aviemore
Part 2 - Scotland Holiday
Summing Up
A massive thanks to Sasha, Denise, David, Ellen and Matt for all of what Christmas entailed; and to Denise & David for their hospitality in Edinburgh around New Years, it was great. It was also good to visit Aberdeen and Glasgow as new places (as well as Aviemore!), and for me to revisit Inverness - and I saw different things this time than I did the time previous, as well as some things the same. Overall this trip I don't feel like we were rushing to do a lot, it had a slower pace which suited me just fine!
Obviously given what I have written above, we'll be back to Scotland once more before the OE is over. Edinburgh will definitely be revisited, but Glasgow, Aberdeen, Aviemore and Inverness are unlikely to feature on the next trip. This is fine though - the next time is not likely to be our last visit to Scotland ever, but we're very much looking forward to the parts of Scotland that we will visit next time such as Isle of Skye. Who knows, maybe sometime in the future post-OE when we visit Scotland it might be an independent country by then - although I was opposed to its seccession at the time of the independence referendum, as time has gone on and having actually lived in the UK and seen how it works I am now firmly of the opinion that the best thing Scotland could do is unshackle itself from the Union and forge its own course, particularly in a post-Brexit environment. Hell, had it become independent during the last referendum and made visas available as freely as they said they were going, it could well have been that instead of Sasha and I moving to Germany when we did that we went to an independent Scotland. It is a very nice country - and while we didn't get the snow we hoped for at Christmas itself, the whole holiday was a blast! Scotland - we'll be back soon, but we have some more adventures to be had in the meantime...