December 2024 Christmas letter

Christmas already - how did that happen? Another year has absolutely flown by. This year, investigating the functionality that AI has to offer, we asked Google's Gemini software to access our family calendar, read our previous blogs, and then write this year’s newsletter in a similar style. I'm pleased to say that it did almost exactly as requested, except the mother of the family was named Sarah and the events it spoke about bore no resemblance to what we got up to! So what you are about to read has been composed entirely by the hand of a human. Or has it? That’s what AI would want you to think.

Every January, Eilidh just seems to get older. It’s probably because that’s when her birthday is. This year, we took Eilidh and her friends ice-skating. It was interesting to see the wide range of ability on show amongst the group ranging from beginner competency all the way to never-skated-before. Still everybody seemed to enjoy the ice disco, and as far as we know, there were no broken bones, so that counts as a small win.

The February school holidays were very notable. Firstly, we escaped Scotland to get some winter sun, spending a couple of days in Madrid before getting an evening train down to Granada to allow us to spend the next day exploring the Alhambra. From there, we hired a car and drove to sunny Malaga for a day, before flying back home in time for Craig to start a new job. After 22 years in pensions with Mercer, Craig moved into a different sphere. Following on from his Masters degree in Climate Change Finance and Investment, he now calculates companies’ carbon footprints and helps them set plans to get to Net Zero at his new company, Inspired ESG. He still had time whilst embarking on a new career to attend the Brass Monkey camp with his Explorers, which was slightly cooler than Malaga had been!

By the time March came around, Iona had been planning her birthday party for months! Having developed into a Swiftie, the release of the Eras Tour on Disney Plus the week before her birthday meant that a Tyalor Swift-themed party was the order of the day. A screening of the show, pizzas, friendship bracelets, and other assorted TS-style things were all on the agenda. Everybody came in with bags of energy, but were able to Shake It Off by the end.

April saw our second mini-break of the year, going out to Poland to spend some time with Iona’s bestie Hania and her family near Krakow. With no direct flights to Poland on a Friday or Saturday from Scotland available, we concocted a plan that would get us to Krakow quicker than the available flight. So it was that we found ourselves on the Friday night sitting on the plane on the runway to fly to Berlin. Then we sat some more. And then a bit more. Then we were told that a passenger assistance lift was broken and stuck beside our plane, meaning that it could manoeuvre out onto the runway, so we’d all have to come back at the crack of dawn the next day. We eventually arrived in Berlin around lunchtime Saturday, meaning that we only had a couple of hours of sightseeing there before the next leg of our trip, a beautiful train ride from the German capital to Prague. There was no time to stop in Czechia, though - we were booked onto a sleeper train, which arrived in Krakow very early on the Sunday morning. The European trains all ran like clockwork, meaning the remaining travels were stress-free. We had an amazing and relaxing time in Poland including a hike in the beautiful Zakopane mountains. Craig flew back from Poland on Tuesday evening due to having to get back to work, while Gwen and the girls stayed out for the rest of the week.

There was still time in April for Iona to go on a Scout hike and camp, before the early May bank holiday weekend saw us take off to Dumfriesshire for a weekend with the Andrews and the Jenkins. Alas, a timing issue meant that the April showers continued into May, leading to a rather wet weekend and the postponement of a helicopter flight that we’d been due to take on the Monday afternoon.

As spring finally sprung and then broke into something vaguely resembling summer, but with more rain, Gwen and the girls went to Shropshire with Brenda and Roger to celebrate Uncle Harvey’s (Roger’s brother) 90th birthday. At the same time that was going on, Craig was putting his Explorers through their paces with a challenging expedition. That same weekend (if you thought it couldn’t get any busier) was notable for another reason - Taylor came to Town! With tickets being like gold dust, and despite everyone being very tired, we took a picnic rug and a hastily arranged packed tea, and made our way to Roseburn Park beside Murrayfield to hear the songstress roll out the hits; we even caught glimpses of her on the big screen that we could see a slither of through the stairwell!

As we neared the end of the school term, Craig and Iona went on their first Scout camp together, with Craig having been called in to run a kayaking session on the camp. Scouting for those two was coming to an end for the summer break, but there was a long way still to go for Eilidh, whose summer was about to get exceedingly busy! Readers with long memories may recall that Eilidh was selected to attend the Blair Atholl jamborette as part of the West Lothian contingent. Throughout the year, she’d been attending training weekends, team building evenings and fundraising events to ensure that the Explorers were capable of being relatively self-sufficient for the 12-days that they’d be away. But Blair was a tiny dot on the horizon at the end of June.

Six dance shows over a five-day Friday-Tuesday produced some fab-u-lous dancing, and ended with Eilidh presented with a trophy from one of her coaches for her kindness, conscientious attitude and progress over the year. No rest for the wicked though, and nor for Eilidh. She had to be at school at the crack of dawn on the Wednesday morning for a school dance trip to London, which included lessons at two different dance schools, various sight-seeing trips, and seeing Mamma Mia at the theatre. Back home in the early Friday evening, and the next again day, we jetted off for our summer holiday.

The summer holiday was a genuine celebration - of Judy and Russell’s golden wedding anniversary. By plane, train and automobile, Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Kathryn, Kieran, Gemma, Logan, Auntie Jenny and Matthew converged to a villa in a little village in the Dordogne region of France for almost two-weeks of family fun. Not everybody did everything, but combinations of chateaux, kayaking, cycling, heart-pounding activities, restaurants, swimming and mainly sunshine ensured that everybody had a great time!

Following our return from France, Eilidh had a whole four days to appreciate the summer holidays at home before starting her adventure with the other Explorers. To say that we packed her off on a train and didn’t see her again for the best part of two weeks wouldn’t be entirely true though: the middle Saturday was visitor day, so we went up, sampled the “countries fayre”, took Eilidh for a shower and nice dinner at our hotel in Pitlochry, and then returned her to camp and stayed on for a rather wet campfire. Getting back from Blair on the last Friday in July, we thought that Eilidh was due a well-deserved rest, so we went up to Sallachy for a week of relaxation (which admittedly involved mountain bikes, hikes and kayaks, but also included a lot of sleep!).

A large shadow was, however, cast on us whilst up north with receipt of the news that Roger had been diagnosed with a terminal cancer; left untreated, the oncologist gave him six weeks. After consultation with medical professionals and Brenda, and with a golden-wedding anniversary approaching in December, he resolved to receive whatever treatment was offered to prolong his life. The oncologist was non-committal about the anniversary. Amongst the sadness, it’s fair to say that we felt blessed that Brenda and Roger made the move to Livingston last year, and that we were correspondingly able to spend more time with them.

The fun continued in August with the rescheduled helicopter flight which had been cancelled in May. This was a very generous Christmas present from Auntie Wendy, and a splendid day saw us soar over the countryside around Cumbernauld on a short but spectacular flight.

At the September weekend, the girls received the last of their presents from Christmas 2023 - a trip to Alton Towers. We left the house early on Sunday morning, arrived early afternoon, stayed over, and had most of (a rather wet) Monday in the park as well. The girls have always loved roller coasters, and this was a weekend that went down particularly well!

As the days started shortening, we went up to Sallachy again during the October holidays. No kayaks this time, but we did manage to tick off one thing from the bucket list that has appealed to us ever since we started going up there - walking to the Falls of Glomach. Described as one of the tallest and most remote waterfalls in the UK, it would be difficult to argue the point. It’s also quite difficult to access - involving a 12-mile round trip hike. The difficulty level is ratcheted up a notch when the bottom of your hiking boot falls off just over a mile in, and your husband has to run / cycle back to the car to get a spare pair of walking shoes - the diversion was a sole-destroying experience! The falls themselves are indeed spectacular - photos and videos don’t really do them justice, but not a place for the faint-hearted!

Iona is now in her final year of primary school - where does the time go?! She’s still swimming, playing her flute (not at the same time), and has joined the school choir. She also enjoys playing (a bit too much?🤔) online computer games with her friends.

Eilidh is now reaching the crunch-time in education where exams start coming along! The homework has cranked up by a significant degree this year, and she’s been studying very hard to ensure that she can fit it all in between her activities. She passed her second and third artistic swimming exams this year, and also has a ballet exam in mid-December. With an ambition to be a primary school teacher, the opportunity for her to be a young leader in Scouting provides valuable experience. The Squirrel section that she’d been helping with had to change to a time that she couldn’t make, so she’s now started helping with the Beavers in West Calder. She is also fundraising for her next Scouting trip - to Norway in the summer!

It’s been a very busy year for Gwen (and Craig), supporting Brenda and Roger with their move to Livingston, and more recently with Roger’s illness. She’s also currently doing an extra shift at work to cover for a colleague’s paternity leave. In amongst all that, she’s managing to squeeze in concerts, exercise and living!

Craig is still getting (and subjecting the girls to) regular doses of sadness by going to see Hearts play (but ever the optimist, he thinks things are on the up after their worst start to a league season in history!). He’s also currently stepped in as a stand-in Scout Leader at Iona’s Troop (in addition to his regular Explorer work) to cover a leader who’s had to take some time off.

Finally, an update on Roger. His initial radiotherapy session didn’t go well and he had to be ambulanced to hospital after a bad reaction to it. After that, however, the remaining radiotherapy course went relatively well. The real turning point however, was starting on immunotherapy. He has been responding very well to that, and has a wonderful attitude to life, continuing to do short walks nearby and share with the family, and we’re at the stage where we feel like we can look to the future in weeks and months rather than days and weeks. He and Brenda are looking forward to their golden wedding anniversary just after Christmas and enjoying their time together.

All that’s left to say is that if you’re anywhere close by, please do let us know – we’d love to see you!  The Family Browning would like to wish all our friends and relations a very Merry Christmas, and all best wishes for a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!

December 2023 Christmas letter

Wow, it’s hard to believe it’s “that time of year” already.  What a year it’s turned out to be with some major changes as the year progressed (spoiler alert…keep reading!).  It all started fairly innocuously, with January.  Eilidh officially turned a teenager, despite having been doing a convincing impression of one for several years.  For her party she and her friends did a museum-break-in-themed escape room (which they duly completed, displaying their credentials to be criminal masterminds), before they retreated to their lair in our living room to watch a film and talk about stuff that adults aren’t allowed to hear or know!

February got off to a cold, wet and windy start for Craig at the annual Brass Monkey camp, before the whole family escaped up to Sallachy for a much-needed break for the week and a chance to slow things down.

Craig had another cold and wet weekend at the start of March on camp, before Eilidh played in a national school windband event in Perth at which James Young took home a medal.  The following weekend, it was Browning birthday time again.  Iona’s birthday was on the Saturday (moving into double figures!), and, inspired by Eilidh’s escape room, Iona and her friends did a Harry Potter-themed room of their own (and completed it).  On Gwen’s birthday on the Sunday, we went for afternoon tea at the Cauldron, a truly magical experience, before taking Iona to buy a wand (a replica of Ginny Weasley’s, for those ITK), which she was delighted with!

In April, we did something we don’t normally do, and went on an overseas holiday at Easter.  This was largely making up for a 40^th birthday present trip to Sweden for Gwen, which was cancelled due to the pandemic.  It wasn’t a complete like-for-like swap though; instead we explored other parts of Scandinavia. 

We flew into Oslo and spent two days there, finding out about arctic explorers, discovering Viking history in real life and virtual reality, and seeing art including Munch’s The Scream.  We then took an overnight ferry to Copenhagen, where we experienced Tivoli Gardens, architecture and general museums, a castle, and of course, the Little Mermaid via a canal boat ride.  Clearly, no family visit to Denmark would be complete without a trip to the home of Lego, and so, a train and a bus ride later, we found ourselves checking into the Lego Castle hotel.  We spent an afternoon in Lego House, where we had our dinner made by Lego robots, spent the following day in Legoland itself, and then spent the next morning at the Lalandia (indoor) waterpark, which is less than a kilometre away from Legoland.  For a town with a population of only just over 7,000, Billund is probably the best wee town in the world!  

You’d have thought that after that, it would be time to head home, but instead, we flew to London to spend Easter with the Peplers in London, before finally getting the train home on Easter Monday.  With all that, you might expect that we’d have a bit of time at home to recuperate, but in the last weekend of April, heading into the bank holiday Monday in May, we went away down to the borders with the Andrews and the Jenkins.

May was actually a quieter month.  There was a Cub camp for Iona, and then a highlight at the end of the month: a boat trip with Auntie Wendy to the Isle of May, where we had to step carefully to avoid squishing puffins and various other sea birds which nest there.

June was full of birthday parties, friends for dinner, gala days and concerts leading up to Eilidh’s dance show at the end of the month and into the start of July. 

Our summer holiday was a lovely family time together.  After a night in Bordeaux, we camped in the Dordogne region in the south-west of France.  A highlight was visiting Lascaux II, a faithful underground recreation of 17,000-year-old cave paintings which Craig had seen in his youth (not 17,000 years ago).  We were fortunate to get it to see it, with only a limited number of tickets available and most tourists being directed to Lascaux IV, housed in a specially constructed modern museum. We enjoyed various sporting pursuits (kayaking, cycling, and one-sided tennis, where Craig hit the ball over the net to some combination of Gwen, Eilidh and Iona, and it usually didn’t come back), and made good use of the swimming pool most days!

Our ninth night of camping brought our time in le sud-ouest to a close, but our French adventures were not over yet.  On our way back to the ferry, we visited Puys du Fou, a theme park that can only be described as spectacular.  Unlike any theme park in the UK, this attraction didn’t have any rides; instead, it had a theme (the past), and it contained several small stadia showing a variety of re‑enactments (Viking raids, roman chariot racing, etc).  It’s a place which has to be seen to be believed!

We arrived back home on the Sunday, just in time for the girls to participate in a five-day water sports summer course in Queensferry, where they got to try all manner of water sports activities in weather not quite as warm (or not raining) as it had been a couple of weeks previously in France.  Another week at home and then it was off on our travels once again, this time to Gwen’s parents on the south coast of England for a week, which encompassed Craig’s birthday, for which we enjoyed paddle-boarding and a lovely dinner out for two, and our 15^th wedding anniversary.  On the wedding anniversary, Craig left Gwen… for a summer camp in London with the Explorers (how romantic!); Craig feels lucky to have a very understanding wife!  And with that, our summer holidays ended.

The final four months of the year seem to have flown by.  We enjoyed the church weekend away in September, but the highlight of the month was a personal challenge for a very quiet and reserved  Eilidh, who attended a “selection weekend” of Scouts and Explorers from across West Lothian, most of whom were unknown to her, in a bid to claim a spot at the two-week-long Blair Athol Scout Jamborette next summer.  With approximately two applications for every in-demand space available, we were all delighted when the result came through that she’d been selected to attend the event.

October saw us take a very welcome retreat from our busy lives up to Sallachy.  It undoubtedly was one of the wettest breaks we’ve had up north (we saw lochs on our way north that don’t usually exist!), but we didn’t mind too much as we cosied down and enjoyed the grey-but-beautiful highland scenery, board games and books in front of the fire.  Having come off the back of that week, Craig got exceptionally lucky the following week in getting a dry weekend for his Explorers’ expedition practice hike and camp.

October was also a month of change, moving out of comfort zones, and pushing boundaries for the girls.  Iona showed very good resilience to continue her final few weeks of Cubs without her close friend there, putting it behind her and achieving the Chief Scout’s Silver award, the highest award obtainable in Cubs.  Following the October holidays, Iona moved up from Cubs to Scouts.  Eilidh’s Scouting activities closely mirrored Iona’s, managing to complete the Chief Scout’s Gold award, the highest award obtainable in Scouts.  Young people usually stay in Scouts until age 14, but in a move designed to suit all parties, Eilidh moved up to Explorers a few months early while her friend Penelope moved up a few months late, meaning that they made the move together.  It also meant that for the first time, Eilidh is now a member of a section led by Craig!  Eilidh and Penelope also carried on their Scouting journey by attending a Young Leader’s training course, enabling them to spend time helping out with a younger section.  The result of all of this has been a bit of a boost in confidence for the girls, and a lot of badge-sewing as new uniforms come into operation; having a simultaneous uniform change is probably the biggest failure of family planning that we’ve experienced in the almost-14 years of being parents!

In the diary, November seemed like a much more quite month (though that doesn’t tell the whole story – more to follow); the only “weekend” event in the calendar was Iona’s first Scout camp.  What a weekend her Troop chose, as they christened their brand new tents on a weekend during which the temperature fell to -4^oC.  We were extremely proud of Iona for having the confidence to go away on the camp only a month after moving up, and she breezed through it.

And so here we are in December.  The Friday night before Christmas Eilidh and Craig will be (or went, if you’re reading this after the event) on their first Explorer camp together, an indoor sleepover.  And we’ve got the small matter of temporary house guests.  Brenda and Roger are here, but not on holiday.  They decided at the start of autumn that they wanted to move up to Scotland sooner rather than later, put their house on the market, and did a whole lot of work clearing it out.

Initially, there wasn’t much serious interest, but in late October, a couple came to visit who seemed like they might take things further, and who would like to move in quickly in order to accommodate an imminent baby (sounds a bit Christmas-ish).  This was all very positive from a house-selling point of view, but required some immediate action to ensure that they didn’t become homeless!  This fired the starting pistol a race to find rental accommodation, sent us out to estate agents and their websites, and book visits to see properties.  Remarkably, especially given the crowded rental market, they were successful with their first application, a nice wee house in Cramond, and got everything all arranged.  However, in the short time between the rent being agreed and them moving in, we identified a bungalow being put on the market for sale just down the road from us.  They examined the details that evening, Gwen visited the next day, they put in an offer that afternoon, and had agreed the purchase the next day.  To complete the whirlwind of activity, they managed to cancel the rental agreement without being charged a penny, and are scheduled to take possession the Wednesday before Christmas.  The stresses of each stage of the transactions have affected everybody in different ways, but everything seems set for a fresh start in the New Year.  We went down to the south coast at the start of December notionally to help them pack, but in reality to say goodbye to the house, although the sale still wasn’t certain right to the last moment – truly nail‑biting stuff.  Gwen drove down on the Thursday, experiencing problems which required the car to be taken into the garage the next day, while the flight Craig and the girls were on on the Friday evening was delayed by 2 hours and 54 minutes, agonisingly short of the 3 hour delay required to get a refund (although they did get their dinner paid for!).  Things are never easy!

Iona is still continuing with her gymnastics, and enjoying her horse riding.  She has also started learning the flute at school.

Eilidh, having been a dancer all her life and developed into a strong swimmer, this year combined those hobbies into an additional one by doing something that she’s longed to do for several years – artistic swimming.  She started in May, and by November had already passed the first exam.  She’s also tried her hand at being a Young Leader with the new youngest section of Scouting, Squirrel Scouts.

Gwen is still teaching up-and-coming GPs in addition to her work in the practice.  She has played in most of the regular concerts over the year with Meadows Chamber Orchestra. She has also renewed her gym membership, realising that as taxi driver to the girls’ clubs, it is now easier to exercise whilst waiting for them to dance / swim / do gymnastics…than at home!

Craig tried his hand at being a lawyer during the course of the year, fighting a parking fine tooth and nail; currently, no court summons has been received!  He is though genuinely undergoing a career change (but not to a lawyer!) linked to his Master’s degree.  After more than 22 years working in pensions, he will be calculating firms’ carbon footprints and hopefully helping them to reduce their emissions.  The new job starts in mid-February.

As always, if you’re anywhere close by, please do give us a shout – we’d love to see you!  The Family Browning would like to wish all our friends and relations a very Merry Christmas, and all best wishes for a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!

December 2022 Christmas letter

It’s scarcely believable that we’re at the end of yet another year. For us, it’s been a year (literally!) of renovation. With our new internal doors finally being fitted the week before Christmas 2021, our new kitchen finally got underway in January after an initial December fitting date was Covid-ed into the new year. We thought this was the beginning of a short final blast at house updates, with just a few rooms, skirtings and door surrounds for Gwen to paint on her “days off”. We were, of course, overly optimistic…

It was lovely to start the year with the Rouses living so close to us for the first part of it, after Kathryn and the kids came across from Australia for an extended period.  The first major event of the year was Eilidh’s 12th birthday.  Eilidh decided to have a party at Go Ape.  Having an outdoor birthday party in January was always going to be a risk, but we got a lovely sunny afternoon to spend some time swinging from the treetops!

The following weekend saw Craig and Eilidh go off to the Scouts’ Brass Monkey camp.  The weather wasn’t quite as cold as they would have liked(!), but the storm-force winds certainly rocked Craig to sleep in his hammock (and then woke him up at various points throughout the night!).

For the couple of days’ break at February half term, we went up north to have some chill time at Sallachy, visiting the polar bears and snow leopards at Highland Wildlife Park on the way back down the road. The trip wasn’t as long as we would have liked though - Craig had to get back for uni work - but it was nice to get a break all the same.

The end of March was a hectic time, with Iona’s and Gwen’s birthdays directly followed by Mothering Sunday, and surrounded on both sides by Craig’s university assignments. Iona had her 9th birthday party in Innoflate - so much bouncy fun!

By this point, the renovations in our house were nearing completion - or so we thought. With just some minor snagging issues to be sorted, we were enjoying eating dinner at the new breakfast bar in the kitchen when a cupboard came crashing down off the wall, bounced off the new worktop and landed on the floor. It was a traumatic experience for the girls in particular, leaving all of us shocked and surrounded by broken glass and a lot more workmen to coordinate again.

Easter saw us joined by the Peplers, going up to Sallachy for the week up until Good Friday, before a beautiful scenic drive out to the Ardnamurchan Lighthouse and then getting the ferry across to Mull, spending a lovely evening there, followed by two nights over Easter weekend on the Isle of Iona. It was a bittersweet trip for Iona though, who had long dreamed of visiting the island bearing her name. Over the preceding months, she had been building up to losing her best friend, Hania, who was moving back to Poland with her family. By coincidence, they had also planned a trip to Mull as part of leaving Scotland, so we were able to meet up for a short while on Iona, and the girls waved a final goodbye to each as Hania’s family caught the ferry back to Mull.

For the early May bank holiday weekend, we went away with the Andrews and Jenkins to a house near Lockerbie. It was a baptism of fire for Craig, who’d never towed a trailer before, taking eight kayaks behind him down the M74. Going forward was fairly straight-forward, but reversing it (into the driveway of the house, not on the M74!) was another kettle of fish altogether!

May also saw Iona go on her first Cub camp, where she was accompanied by Kieran and Gemma, who had been allowed to join Cubs on a short-term basis while they were over. The following weekend involved a lovely family trip to Glasgow, but the less said about the Cup final that we all attended whilst there, the better. As if May weren’t packed enough, there was still time for Eilidh to go on a Scout camp!

June’s main event was Eilidh’s dance show, being held for the first time since just before the first lockdown. She did an amazing job in all the performances, in tap, jazz and ballet and clearly loves her main hobby. She is doing an extra class in ballet now to prepare for en pointes, which seems very grown up to us!

During the year, Gwen had been invited to participate in a reunion of her school’s County Youth Orchestra, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary. In a stroke of good fortune, the date set for the event happened to coincide with the start of the fortnight that we had planned for holidays, so we were able to arrange our much-anticipated first overseas trip since Covid (to France) around it.

The France trip was great. It coincided with the beginning of the heatwave that swept across Europe, forcing us out of our tent in the morning before it became too hot! Our first week or so was spent camping in the Loire Valley. We saw several chateaux, went spelunking (or exploring some fairly basic caves on a well-trodden path), did some cycling (but don’t promise incentivising ice-creams if you haven’t done your research, the French aren’t as dedicated to the cause as we thought!), and some obligatory kayaking in the Loire river (32km with barely a current - it was very hard work but beautiful!). We then spent three nights in Paris.  Highlights included climbing the Eiffel Tower in 36° heat, going on a river boat cruise with Iona’s favourite superheros, exploring the Louvre and Versailles, and managing not to melt in the increasingly hot temperatures!

From then on, it was all-systems-go for Craig to complete his Masters dissertation within a challenging mid-August deadline, but we still found time for a trip to London to take in Imogen’s birthday party and a trip to the Crystal Maze on Craig’s birthday (a pre-pandemic 40th birthday present for Craig!). Craig took the train back up north on the Monday, while Gwen and the girls continued on to Lymington to spend the rest of the week with Brenda and Roger (who felt bad for Craig missing out on the beach trips and pony trekking in the New Forest, but it would have been wrong to be miserable and they needed to stay cool somehow……)

Almost literally straight after Craig submitted his dissertation, he and Eilidh were away on a joint Scouts and Explorers camp to Northumberland.

The final quarter of the year seems to have flown by. The main feature of that period was our October holiday. Having realised back in Easter that the prospect of not seeing a bestie for an undetermined length of time was a daunting idea, we said “well maybe we can arrange a holiday to Poland”. And we did…. We flew to Gdansk and spent two nights in Sopot right next to the Baltic Sea, before a couple of nights in Warsaw and finally four nights in Krakow with Hania and her family. Iona was thrilled to see Hania again, and it was as if there hadn’t been a moment apart, although the ending was inevitably filled with tears. As a better wordsmith than I once said: “parting is such sweet sorrow”.

October still had a free weekend which Craig managed to fill with an Explorers camp, while Gwen booked in a retreat to Lindisfarne with some friends in November.

Iona gave up dancing as a hobby when the pandemic hit, but has replaced it with gymnastics. At the end of November, her club championships were held. She woke up in the morning full of nerves but with an encouraging video call to Poland and a deep breath she twisted and jumped her way to a silver medal! She has also been taking horse riding lessons at a local stable and is delighted to be able to jump over a small bar…!

Eilidh is still dancing, and has expanded her swimming skills into a young-persons' life-saving course. She is thriving in S2 and likes to keep busy in school as well - she is in wind band playing her oboe and in the Social Enterprise club, recently organising a Christmas party for the first years.

Craig graduated from his Masters degree in November and is back working at Mercer, with a focus on climate change issues.  He continues to be kept busy with his Scouting, and was presented with a Silver Acorn award at a ceremony in March.

Gwen is still playing up the Meadows Chamber Orchestra, and in November had the privilege of leading the orchestra for the first time in the Brahms Requiem. She and the orchestra did a fabulous job! 

If ever you are passing by Livingston, please pop in to say hello. 

The Family Browning wish you all a very Merry Christmas and every good fortune for 2023!

December 2021 Christmas letter

Wow - what a year it’s turned out to be.  Like most other people, the pandemic threw everything up in the air multiple times!  Less than a week in, and we were back under full lockdown.  That meant back to challenges of online schooling, and online pretty much everything else. 

Eilidh proved herself to be an amazing and resilient party planner, as her birthday was celebrated with an online sleepover with some of her friends with some games, a synchronised movie watch with popcorn, and an online “photobooth” with props that she had delivered around with other treats.

Into March, we moved into the tier restrictions, meaning that Iona could have a limited Lego-themed outside birthday party the weekend before her birthday (thank goodness for Auntie Jenny's gazebo to shelter us from the downpours! We do love our Scottish weather...!). 

Linlithgow Canal is great for learing to paddle on!

Restrictions began to ease again, but not quite by enough to allow us to get anywhere for Easter, so we spent an enjoyable family week at home, with day trips around the local area. We also acquired some kayaks, which influenced a lot of our activity! We are doing well, with both girls now in their own 'yaks, and only one capsize this season (and it's unclear whether this was intentional or not, Iona had been asking to go for a wild swim two seconds before the event!)  Waiting with baited breath for confirmation of restrictions for the May bank holiday weekend, we were delighted that we were able to journey up to Sallachy to enjoy some Highland peace and tranquility (and adventure, of course!)

After Easter, Iona moved up from Beavers to Cubs, and moved to a smaller Pack closer to home where she was joined by her friend Hania.

Life returning to “nearly normal”, of course, meant that the Browning family returned to “very busy”.  On top of getting back to activities taking up entire weekends, we made progress with some house renovations, which had been in formative stages pre-pandemic.  First up was a remodelling of the living room, with a wood-burning stove, a delayed present for Craig’s 40th.  A builder was hired to carry out some general works in the house – more on that later, Gwen and Craig did a lot of painting (with the hard work admittedly in the ratio 99:1 or thereabouts), new carpets were fitted in October and November, and a new kitchen was due to be fitted in December.  Unfortunately, our builder was incredibly slow at fitting the 17 big doors that were stored flat in our dining room, and so for quite a while we had lovely new carpet but no bedrom doors - not the kind of open plan living that is fashionable nowadays - thank goodness the bathroom and en-suite didn't have the same issue! In addition, the carpet fitters broke Iona's bed so she has been sleeping on the floor for two months - renovations never come stress-free! Eventually we got a new joiner who ftted the doors just in time for Christmas. Our new kitchen, due in December, has been put back until January due to covid issues in the fitting time, but completion at last feels within reach!

There's always time for a family cycle!

The planning and visits to suppliers took up a good chunk of May, but relaxation came in the first weekend of June with a weekend camping with friends in Ayrshire.  This was the first time our “new” (summer 2020) tent had seen action outwith the garden, and we were pumped for it – which is a good mindset to have with an inflatable tent.  Taking our kayaks (are you seeing a theme here?!), we had a lovely afternoon paddling on a local loch in mostly sunshine.

Later in June, Craig got away on his first Explorer camp in 17 months as part of a mini expedition.  It was evident that some of the Explorers had lost some fitness over lockdown: one of them felt sick after climbing up the first hill, came back down to tell Craig, decided he didn’t want to quit so soon into the hike, climbed back up the hill, and then decided to go home after all!

There was still time in June for Gwen to have a lovely short "retreat" to Lindisfarne with Eleanor, where they chatted, drank gin, did yoga on the beach, went swimming in the sea, and were very lucky not to be seriously hurt when the tyre fell off the car as they were exiting the island.  If it had happened 200m earlier, the car would have been drowned as the tide was about to cover the causeway, whereas a mile further on would have seen them at high speed on the A1.  The car had only just come out the garage after servicing, so they accepted responsibility and fixed it up.

Summer arrived, and with it, our holidays.  We decided to split our holiday into two weeks of camping: the first week with the Peplers in the New Forest, before a week in Snowdonia just the four of us.

Zip World in Snowdonia - wedgies all round!

The first week started with a downpour which flooded the local village and broke the tent next to us (the other side of the Peplers!).  After that though, a heatwave started which lasted pretty much to the end of the holiday.  The New Forest location enabled us to get a good mix of days out with Brenda & Roger, and days which would otherwise be a longer trip out when staying with them.  We had great fun at Splashdown water park, Paulton’s Park theme park, a beach day and a cycle ride in the Forest incorporating a grandparent picnic.

On top of Snowdon - it was warmer than it looks!

In Wales, we camped just outside Porthmadog in the shadows of Snowdonia, where the weather made it perfect for some days on the glorious beaches (apart from an astonishing number of jellyfish!).  We cycled into and out of Barmouth and Carmarthen, zip-lined across a slate mine, visited castles looking for dragons (we only found small stuffed ones!), and had to time our climb of Snowdon so that it was on one of the cooler days of the week (mid-to-high 20s). We gather it's not always like that!

As we entered August, it was time for change.  Iona started Primary 4, and it’s barely believable that Eilidh has now started high school!  She found the initial transition quite tough, but has settled quickly and is loving secondary school life.  The world of education has also welcomed back Craig, who found that it is much simpler putting work down for a couple of weeks to go on holiday than it is handing it all over when leaving for a year (for doing an MSc in Climate Change Finance & Investment); it seems that “winding down” is a figurative phrase only! 

August also saw another Explorer camp for Craig, a hike for Iona with teh Cubs, and the ability to get back to the football, and nice for it to actually be enjoyable for a change (with Hearts currently sitting third in the league)!  

September started in customarily busy fashion – and then covid struck!  Eilidh started displaying very mild symptoms on the Monday evening, and had to isolate alone for a single day until Iona developed the slightest temperature spike on the Tuesday and was able to join her after a positive test.  Craig and Gwen seemed to have managed to escape, but Gwen started losing her sense of taste the following Sunday, prompting Craig to switch to camping outside in a bid to get away from the plagued house.  A negative PCR test for Craig meant that he could meet some of his new uni class mates before he developed his own positive test that evening, and had to very sheepishly and apologetically message round to let some of them know that they might be deemed close contacts (although in the end, none of them caught it – phew!).  We all feel very fortunate that none of us have been seriously affected long term; Craig did suffer from breathlessness for about a month afterwards, but his sense of taste was unaffected on account of it being stuck in the 1990s.

London cousins

Eilidh had her first Scout camp in October, finishing just in time to come home, get a shower, and then zoom off with Gwen and Iona to England to spend a fun-filled October holiday week in the company of Grandma and Grandad, one of the highlights of which was a pony trek in the New Forest.  It was lovely to spend the weekend with the Andrews on the way back up, Craig having caught the train down to Formby to join the last stage of the journey. Iona enjoyed participating in a gymnastics competition at her new club.

Gwen had a concert in November, which the girls and Craig went to watch.  November also included a cold day trip to the zoo (a Christmas 2020 present from Grandma and Grandpa – thank you!), but other than that was just very busy trying to get the house back into shape after the works.

Aussie and Livi cousins

And so we reach December.  While an early highlight was another trip to see the animal kingdom, this time at Deep Sea World (another Christmas 2020 present, courtesy of Auntie Jen & Uncle Dan), the biggest and best thing this month was getting to spend lots of time with cousins, as the Rouses arrived from Australia for a 6-month-ish visit, and the female Peplers visited for a couple of nights to join Gwen and the girls at the Nutcracker ballet.  Oh, and finally getting those doors hung!

As always, if you’re anywhere close by, please do let us know and pop in – we’d love to see you!  The Family Browning would like to wish all our friends and relations a very Merry Christmas, and all best wishes for a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!

December 2020 Christmas letter

Well, hands up who would have predicted that year. In common with most of the world, lots of things were cancelled, and we didn't go on our planned holiday. We've spent far more time at home than we've ever done, and we're looking forward to / hoping for some degree of normality resuming when the vaccine is distributed. 

If you happen to be passing by, want to say "hi", and government rules permit, please do get in touch - we always enjoy catching up with friends. The Family Browning would like to wish you all a [voice from off-stage: hold on, there's far more to say about our year than that]... 

2020 all started off so well (on a personal level at any rate, not so great for the bits of the world that were on fire). With Jen and Dan having got married in December, the Australian cousins were over, and the kids especially enjoyed playing together and doing exciting things like going to see the Lion King. We hope it's not too long before Kathryn, Sean and the children can get back over. 

Eilidh's swimming pool cake

In mid January, we took a trip to IKEA (the second of the year already, as we didn't have enough space in the car the first time round for everything we wanted!). Nothing much unusual in that; in fact, you could say it was a usual Browning day of trying to cram lots in - the girls' dance classes in the morning, squeeze in IKEA, go to the Hearts game in the afternoon. Eilidh came out of the dance class complaining of a sore wrist, which persisted throughout the day. It hurt every time Hearts scored (which was depressingly few and far between in "season" 2019-20), so it was unfortunate that Hearts won 4-0 that day. With the pain getting worse by teatime, a trip to A&E was in order, which revealed a fractured wrist and the requirement for a stookie. Obviously that in itself was bad news for Eilidh, but the double jeopardy bad luck was that she was due to be having a pool party the following weekend for her birthday. In the end, it all worked out OK, as she had an impromptu film night with her friends, before reconvening after four weeks and a quick healing process to party at the pool. So two birthday parties this year for Eilidh, though she probably would have rather done without the broken wrist. And one IKEA office chair which has had rather more use this year than was anticipated! 

Dance costumes

February saw Craig go away with the Explorers to the annual Sub-Zero camp, although the camp was wet rather than cold, so wet in fact that hundreds of Scouts and Explorers either had to abandon camp or sleep in a barn. The following weekend, we went to the church holiday in Ayrshire, enjoying a peaceful, though wet, weekend.

Iona's Trolls cake

As February drew to an end and gave way to March, there were murmurs that the schools' Easter holidays might be extended by a few weeks. Italy had gone into lockdown, but surely nothing like that could happen on our shores… The first weekend in March was the girls dance show. They did us proud, with one routine each of ballet, tap and jazz. One show down, and one acro show to go, scheduled for May… Through March, Gwen was also busy practising for a concert, Craig was busy building a new high sleeper bed as part a room redecoration for Iona's birthday, and while all that was going on, we had men in redoing our bathroom and en suite. All was finished bar the snagging the week before full lockdown, and a socially distanced birthday party for Iona was held the day before full lockdown. It was a conveniently sunny day, which allowed us to play games outside, and one of the competitions we did was to see how well each of the kids could wash their hands!  By the end of the day, we’d had quite enough of the song “happy birthday”. Gwen's 40th birthday party, which was due to take place at the Dalmahoy the following weekend, was one of our first casualties from a Covid point of view, quickly followed by our Easter trip to Sallachy. The former was replaced by a family zoom afternoon, while the latter, like most of the country, was replaced by a staycation. Alas, our long-weekend in Sweden at the start of May (part of Gwen’s 40th birthday present) also bit the dust, and couldn't be replaced by any number of trips to IKEA. Our rebooking for the same weekend in 2021 is looking touch-and-go at the moment. In the meantime, having not celebrated turning 40 yet, Gwen is quite content remaining 39 for another year!

Finally got them working!

It's fair to say that the first period of lockdown was one of the busiest periods of our life. In contrast to the media narrative of the country sitting around in their collective pants on furlough, Craig was working from 6:30am to 9am, before feeding and homeschooling the girls until 1pm, and then working until late. Gwen's work adapted to the virus conditions, with the majority of consultations being moved to phone, and very careful procedures being followed if a patient needed to come to the practice / a home visit.  Those hours when Gwen got away from the surgery were spent relieving Craig on the home schooling front. 

Throughout all this, Craig's Scouting barely missed a beat. The Explorers were straight online and onto Zoom, and virtual camps became the order of the day. The girls' camping experiences this year have comprised large tents, small tents, hammocks, tents on the trampoline and in the bedroom and dens in the bedroom. It's fair to say that the neighbours were left somewhat bemused by Craig leading online campfires, but this practice was put to great use after he put together an audition tape to be one of the participants in an international campfire festival, for which he and his glamorous assistant won a prize! (For anyone who's still not seen it and wants a reminder of warmer times, it's still available on YouTube.) 

Ice creams in Fife

April, May and June were all much the same. With movement being severely restricted, we settled into a broad routine of a walk on one weekend day, and a cycle on the other. Things began to open up a bit in July, the week before our planned holiday. The original plan had been to spend the first week in a holiday house in Wales with Gwen's parents and the Peplers, to celebrate Brenda and Roger's 80th birthdays, with the second week camping elsewhere in Wales. Wales itself didn't come out of lockdown until during the first week of our holidays intended holiday, but the Peplers and us managed to find a couple of rental cottages within a few miles of each other in Northumberland with generous refund policies if Covid interrupted proceedings. Other than having to pre-book our day-trips (and having to be in separate cottages), Covid didn't really impact our holiday at all. We visited Alnwick Castle Gardens (but not the castle itself, which announced they would open in the "main holiday season", ie English school holidays, not Scottish ones, grrr), Lindisfarne, Bamburgh Castle and a couple of Roman forts at Hadrian’s Wall, as well as having some the time on the beach and some walks. 

Wild hammocking in Applecross

In the second week of the holiday, we made the getaway up to Sallachy, where again, other than the local swimming pool being shut, we weren't really impacted by Covid. Walks, cycles, kayaking and trips to the beach were the order of the day, with a particularly interesting couple of days spent wild-camping in hammocks in Applecross. In those days, we found out that the reason that Eilidh's and Iona's pretty pink and purple hammocks were relatively cheap is that the holes in the bug net are small enough to keep out dragonflies, but not far more deadly midges! The result of that was that the second night involved Iona sharing Craig's hammock and Eilidh sharing Gwen's. Impressively, everybody managed to get some sleep in. Even more impressively, when we returned to Sallachy, we found that Iona had managed to acquire 17 ticks, more than half of the family's total. 

The blue one that Craig's in is going down like the Titanic!

As July changed to August, we were awaiting an update from Auntie Jenny and Uncle Dan on a new addition to the family, and on 1 August, baby Matthew made an appearance into the world; a wee cutie with two doting big cousins who can’t wait to properly play with / babysit him!

The girl's first Munros - Mayar (closely followed by Driesh)

On Craig's birthday weekend / our wedding anniversary, we went wild camping in Corrie Fee in the south of the Cairngorms. Some absolutely ferocious midges made their presence felt in the evening-time, making being outside the tent for any length of time very uncomfortable indeed. Never before has Gwen had a coughing fit by just opening her mouth to breathe and inhaling thousands of minibeasts… Despite this, we had a very satisfying weekend, which included going on a hike, with the girls climbing their first two Munros; we were very proud of them (we are anyway, but we were extra proud that day!). 

Corrie Fee - beautiful, but home to a gazillion midges

Wonder of wonders, schools went back after the summer holidays (in fact during the summer - they cut the holiday short by a week), and we joined in with thousands of parents across the world in being very grateful to teachers!

Ready for some open-water
swimming 💦

The girls were delighted when swimming pools reopened, though we did manage a couple of open water swimming outings, which are a different kettle of fish altogether from a family swim in the local pool. Face-to-face Scouting and dance classes also resumed in September, as it looked like things might be beginning to return to a semblance of normality. And then, abruptly, things started to get worse. We got pretty lucky with our timings. Our October holiday plans were to go down south to stay near (but not with) Brenda and Roger, and after a very nervous wait to see the day before we were due to travel what Nicola would let us do, we were on our way. Our trip to Splashdown water park was amazing, with Covid meaning a restricted number of customers, and therefore virtually eliminating queues! Ditto our trip to Paultons Park theme park, which had the added bonus of being on a school day. In some instances, we didn't even have to get off the roller coaster before having another turn. Our other day trip was to Portsmouth Historic Docks to see the Mary Rose and other ships, where we virtually had the run of the place! 

Body boarding and snorkelling

We also did some cycling in the New Forest, including meeting up with the grandparents for a picnic, and a beach day similar to what we'd done in the summer, except with some body-boarding thrown in for good measure to replace the sunshine (which we're not sure constituted a like-for-like swap).

The final weekend of the October holiday comprised a weekend with the Jenkins in caravans at a holiday park, shared accommodation sadly not being an option this year. The Andrews had been due to join us too, but sadly found themselves constrained by the Merseyside lockdown. 

And that, sadly, was about that for the year. Iona decided to stop doing gymnastics at the initial lockdown, and after her dance class was disbanded, decided to stop that too. She's still in Beavers and her swimming lessons, and we'll investigate other exciting pursuits for her in the new year. Meanwhile, her favourite hobby is "building school" aka lego; what once was called the family room (converting to a guest room) has officially become known as the "lego room" in 2020. On days in deep lockdown, cries of boredom were few and far between; more frequent were complaints that there were only 12 waking hours in a day, and schoolwork, walking or cycling deprived her of precious lego time. Her new favourite method of transport is the skateboard!

Eilidh finished Cubs at summer, gaining her Chief Scout's Silver Award, and moved up to Scouts. She's in P7, and getting ready to move up to high school! She's still enthusiastically dancing (Gwen has enjoyed surreptitiously spying on the zoom classes and hearing lots of unfamiliar French words amidst burpees and abdominal crunches), loves swimming (she is definitely faster than her mum now), is learning the oboe through school, and gets up to all kinds of creative activities at home. She's set up a wee website and published some of her stories on it, and, both on her own and with her friend (and here), has set up a couple of YouTube channels. Here's a humorous wee 30-second creation of theirs:

Gwen's had a very busy year in work, both in the surgery and in teaching trainee GPs. The pandemic necessitated a new way of working in general practice and a whole load of learning and service redesign. Teaching sessions before the summer were cancelled so that all focus was on the front line. However, since the summer, she's spent many hours transitioning many of the materials so that they could be delivered online. In the rare occasions when she's not having to be a doctor, teacher, chef or cleaner, she has been conscientiously keeping fit at gym classes (or in their absence, swimming or borrowing a body pump bar for home), and she's enjoyed helping to plan church services. 

Craig has also had a busy year at work. He's now in his 20th year at Mercer, but recently had the exciting confirmation that he's been accepted by Edinburgh University to return there in September 2021 to study a Masters degree in Climate Change Finance and Investment. So big changes ahead in 2021. His football-playing has been curtailed somewhat by the pandemic, as has his football watching. The girls were alarmed by the extent shouting at the telly on Hallowe'en as Hearts put Hibs to the sword in the delayed Scottish Cup semi-final. The final on Sunday 20 December promises to be just as loud! (Edit: it was, but more disappointing 😢) Just in the last week, Craig received noticed that he is being given an award (the Silver Acorn) for exceptional service in Scouting for over 20 years, a very proud moment indeed.

Shepherds and sheep in the 
online church Nativity

Overall, it's fair to say that we count ourselves very lucky. We're both still working when we know that so many others have been impacted, and none of us have (to our knowledge) had the virus. We give thanks for our health and pray for continued good health, and that of our extended family and friends. The Family Browning would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and every good wish for a happy and healthy 2021!