There Ain't No Devil, It's Just God When He's Drunk

I LOVE Christmas in Edinburgh! Edinburgh manages to perfectly balance festive taste with fantasy wonder without tripping into the tacky quagmire of giant blow up santas in Styrofoam snow globes. I also think that the Christmas spirit looks amazing on some of the old Georgian architecture that dominated the New Town. This is of the Bank, a very posh cocktail bar that used to be...a bank! There's just something about fairy lights that somehow reminds me of late 18th and early to mid19th century ambiance. Even though they totally didn't exist back then.

The one thing that the UK lacks that the US totally dominated on is the gross decking out of private homes in Christmas lights. I remember how my family used to bundle into the station wagon to go driving around town to see what the locals had done to their lawns. Santa Rosa has a section called Snowman Lane, named because every year, the residents deck out the whole place in awash of Christmas cheer.
However, now that my parents have moved to the absolute boonies of hell, there are no lights, only cows.

I've been lucky enough to split Christmases between the UK and the US for the past 4 years, but this year will be something new. Since my parents moved house in August, the new place they moved into has been theirs. This will be the first winter I've spent there, and the first Christmas that our family has spent Christmas together there (last year was technically the first, but due to my mom's donkey committing suicide, my flight across was deemed less important, so magically my plane ticket turned into mom's new donkey...wankers).

Can ya tell I'm bitter? Anyway, trying not to dwell on Benedict Arnold parents, I am so looking forward to going home again. I am drooling over the idea of Outlet Malls (gross, I know, but I only own one pair of jeans and Levis over here are equivilent to like $140!), SUSHI BUFFET!, and my car...or at least the idea of what my car represents- the ability to go somewhere without needing to walk 10 minuts, take a train, a bus, another bus, and another 20 minutes walk to get anywhere new. God, and my friends! I miss them SO much. I know I have the most amazing friends in the UK, but there are a core group of very special people back in the States who I talk to every couple months, but I fail miserably at talking and am much more of a sensing/physical person.

Anyway, me and the Scot head out tomorrow at 2 for the Big Smoke, then take off Wednesday morning for operation enter the US. Cannae wait!