East coast, as we remembered from our time in York, crisp days, blue skies and cold…hat, scarf, gloves weather. It is always good to visit Edinburgh but I do despair how, despite being very much a capital city, and with more than its fair share of historic and beautiful buildings, it is still rough round the edges. Litter everywhere, puke, overflowing bins, what a society we are! Anyhow it’s lovely to see the progress on Katherine and Nasar’s house (and Aiisha’s of course). New stair carpet running up through their 3 floors with brass carpet rods just ties the whole house together in a stylish way. Our first stop was a children’s library to swop books. One of the nicest….and then on to a special story-telling which was very well done and captivating almost to the end…..the only dodgy bit was that in one of the stories small presents were pulled from a sock for a few children, but at the end of the story they were collected back…mean!A bit of shopping in town, and a chance to admire fine buildings…A busy day was completed at the Commonwealth Swimming Pool for a Christmas party and adventures in the soft-play area….The next day we had a very nice stroll down through New Town to Stockbridge, an area I like very much for its ‘village’ atmosphere and shops. the backs of the big houses are mews converted to rather interesting dwellings…Our task was to buy some fresh fish from the excellent fishmonger which I was to use for sole with beurre noisette. Lunch in the local Deli was great.On Christmas Eve we went to the Princess Gardens fair which always has a nice family atmosphere, unlike some fairs I could mention…Christmas Day was excellent (and busy). I think it took two of us sometimes three of us about 3 hours to erect the Playmobil hospital…still that’s what parents and grandparents are for…..but there were lots of other presents too, so many that Nasar negotiated an agreement whereby quite a lot of existing toys had to be put on one side for Charity before the new ones could be put away!Nasar’s favourite toy, and mine, was the remote control car which could run on walls and ceilings as well as the floor……After Christmas and Boxing Day it is always good to get out and about, here on The Meadows where Aiisha demonstrated how good a cyclist she is now…A little friend from Nursery whom we met by chance made the play area doubly enjoyable. The Meadows is a terrific facility to have on your own doorstep with everything including a golf course and a lovely cafe/deli where we had coffees and, for me, a small Portuguese tart.What a nice Christmas….