Actually today is Saturday, and Mad Friday is done and dusted.

 Just what exactly is Mad Friday?  Well, in Scotland it's the Friday before Christmas and folks go to the pubs en masse for holiday cheer.  Soooo...we did our part by strolling down to  one of the neighborhood bars, The Stardust, for some of that cheer.  What a great time we had, just the two of us, Dave with his beer and me with my tequila sunrises.  Lots of regulars, a nice spread of food, decent music, friendly bartenders.  We did manage to weave our way home later and today have been recuperating and being kind to ourselves.

Hibbing is no Edinburgh, but we are trying to keep a Scottish holiday season as best we can.  Our plans for Monday are to  indulge our inner children with opening presents in the morning and then doing team cooking in preparing our Christmas dinner.  There again, it will be a blending of Scottish and American traditions...turkey, stuffing, roasted potatoes, Brussels sprouts, and so on. 

Although snow has been in the forecast off and on, we have had none really since Paul left on December 1.  In fact, what there is on the ground is slowly melting.  Temps have been extremely mild here, yesterday especially.  Dave has been out on the roads breaking in his new fixed gear bike and has logged the most December miles since around year 2000.  Really boggles the mind...out on the roads in December in northern Minnesota!

We are hopeful there will eventually be enough snow to try cross country skiing.  Surely that will come about in January or February. 

We hope you and yours are enjoying a safe and peaceful holiday season and that you are by now tucked up snug wherever you will be spending your holiday.  We are...no plans to get out for the next several days except to "skate" across the alley to the wee store for a newspaper tomorrow.

Catch ya later!