Christmas gifts

Merry Christmas.

I received some travel gifts for the trip to Scotland.

One daughter gave me some travel paraphernalia including an adaptor and an inflatable neck pillow for that long flight. How long is that flight, anyway?  I'm expecting it to be somewhere between 8 and 12 hours, so I'm thinking I'm going to be pretty thankful for that blow-up pillow during that time.

Another daughter gave me a lovely RED vest I can pack for those hikes along the countryside and the third gave me the newest Diana Gabaldon book "The Scottish Prisoner" which I'm sure I will blaze through in no time.

Diana Gabaldon's writing about Scotland is the reason I am going on this trip.  I first read "Outlander" about 10 years ago and was immediately caught up in the richness of her writing.  I feel as though I know the places she is writing about and know her characters. I don't think I have ever been pulled in so strongly by a story and believe me I have read plenty. At one point I figured I had read about a thousand books - and Gabaldon's are always in my top ten reads.

I got my first questionnaire from the trip coordinator the other day as well.  She wants to know if I'm in reasonably good shape so I can walk the hills of Scotland and, I assume, fit into a regular seat on the tour bus.

The tour I'm going on also includes a night's stay in a castle.  How cool is that?  It's something I've dreamed about for a long time.  Years ago, friends of mine went to Europe and stayed overnight in a castle.  Knowing how I've fantasized about it, they took dozens of pictures so I could see every part of it.  I only hope the castle I stay in will measure up.  My friend told me she said to her husband as they walked around "This should have been Dolly staying here."  I couldn't have agreed more.

The closest thing to a castle that I've been in is Meadowbrook - which technically is an English country house - despite the fact it has a ballroom, a courtyard and acres of grounds.   My friend Jody first took me there for a Christmas walk.  Then it was decorated to the hilt for the holiday and every corner was a storybook setting.

Jody wasn't ever too impressed with Meadowbrook, she was more interested in the decorations but I loved the corridors and chambers and hints of Europe throughout the structure.