A fine Christmas tradition

I am blogging while my boys are watching Professor Brian Cox explaining Quantum Theory. That is to say James, Jamie and Davie, because Alasdair is not so interested in Physics and is upstairs using Facebook instead. Yes, Jamie is home, and I am so relieved to have him home safe after his scary and unpleasant experience early on Saturday morning. He has a big bump on the back of his head but his face is only slightly bruised. We didn't mention the incident to Grandma when she came round for tea! He is very philosophical about the experience and wants to put it behind him. Apart from that I have had a really lovely weekend. James' hangover yesterday gave me the opportunity for a magnificent long lie in bed, we had a relaxing Saturday night in, and today we went out for our traditional Christmas lunch with Heather and Ewan. I have such lovely memories, over quite a few years now, of this festive lunch with such great friends. We choose a restaurant in Glasgow, enjoy a lovely lunch and then usually make our way to Metropolitan to while away the afternoon chatting about all sorts of things. It has become very special to me, and I always look forward to it. One year, I think it was 2007, I was going through a very difficult time at work and I didn't think I could actually manage to go out for lunch, I didn't think I had the heart for it. James persuaded me to come out and despite everything, once we met up with Heather and Ewan and we were having our lunch and chatting, a weight seemed to lift off me and I started to enjoy Christmas and I was able to put aside my worries for a while. I did eventually tell Heather and Ewan about how that particular meal had cheered me up at a difficult time, but I am not sure that I was ever able to convey just how much it meant to me! This year we decided to try out that well known Glasgow restaurant, the Rogano. We have eaten in the cafe downstairs before but not upstairs. The restaurant is decorated in an art deco style, and was fairly quiet this afternoon; we sat at a round table at the back. The meal was delicious; they specialise in sea food and for my main course I had the sea bream with fish cake and James had smoked haddock wrapped in bacon. After our meal we ended up in Metropolitan as usual and had a very pleasant and relaxing afternoon. As Ewan pointed out, it's so nice to be able to chat freely and know that you don't need to "self-censor" your conversation, which is a mark of the trust between James and I and Heather and Ewan. I do enjoy our Christmas tradition!