We just got back from the Watch-Night service at church.  My brother Stu and I sang and played in front of the congregation.  I was pretty nervous but Stu kept me right.  You could hear a baby crying right after a moment of silence at the beginning of the song.  How apt!  It was very moving indeed.

Click below to hear a recording…

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I’m so glad that we can finally relax and enjoy a family Christmas.

Peace and love to all.

Best wishes,

Px

We are looking forward to a relaxing Christmas and New Years after a very busy December at our two churches and at work too.   This year I left the afterschool club job for a temporary position as the maternity cover for the Youth and Children’s Officer for the Diocese of Edinburgh.  It’s been an excellent experience filled with new and exciting challenges every week.  I’ve learned quite a bit and met some lovely people in our Diocese as well as visitors from other Dioceses around the world too.

At the end of February, Paul and I had the great joy of visiting my family in the states once more.  This time, during Fawcett birthday season – so we managed to be there for Aunt Barb’s birthday and also to celebrate my birthday and dad’s birthday too.  On our visit home, we took a road trip to Maryland to meet Pat and Patrick Costello – two wonderful banjo players who share their love for this music online daily through free banjo lessons.  As Paul had learned to play from watching them online, it was a great joy to see him finally meet them in person.  We were treated to excellent hospitality by both Pat and Patrick along with Pat’s wife Miss Trudy.

For my birthday, Paul and our family chipped in to get me a digital SLR camera!  I’ve had loads of fun this year trying my hand at digital photography.  Paul has enjoyed the new gadget as well and has become quite the nature photographer too!

In the spring, we helped as leaders on the Easter Vigil and a youth retreat for St. Philip’s youth group.  Once again the Breakfast Club and our co-leaders David, Carol and Lesley continue to inspire us.

Yay Broon!

In May we traveled home to Boston for Bethany and Jeff’s wedding. It was excellent to be back to see all our great Boston friends, especially Lisa, Matt and Melissa.  We realised just how much we miss Boston and are sure that when we eventually move back to the states, it will be to Boston.  One of the highlights of the trip home was meeting Tommy, Matt and Melissa’s baby boy. He was quite impresssed with Broon’s banjo playing, repeatedly saying “Yay Broon!” We enjoyed a fun a trip to Cabot’s with the Sagendorphs.  For me, it was especially wonderful to be able to visit with my best friend Lisa and we hope it won’t be too long before we see her again.

In July, we made the big move!  We moved out of Edinburgh to a nearby seaside town called Musselburgh (although we officially live in Fisherrow apparently…).  We are renting a flat for just the two of us and it’s lovely.

We celebrated our three year wedding anniversary on the 26^th of August.  Paul treated me to a lovely meal at the Glasshouse in Musselburgh and we finished off with ice cream from S. Luca. (So thankful to be living closer to our favourite ice cream parlour now!)

In November, Mom and Dad crossed the ocean for a visit to Musselburgh to stay with us.  It was so nice to be with them again and to have time to see more of Edinburgh.  The highlights were definitely sharing High Tea at the Balmoral Hotel, climbing Arthur’s Seat with Dad and sharing in an early Thanksgiving meal with the Broons.  During this week, we also were thrilled to celebrate Paul’s Baptism day.  There was a quiet service at St. Philip’s followed by drinks at the Dalrieda with family and a couple friends.

We’re looking forward to seeing what 2010 brings and hope to catch up with you soon.   Many blessings for you and your family this year.  With Love, from Mish and Broon.

I spent the day up to my elbows in Christmas Trees.  I have been volunteering for the Caring Christmas Trees project over the last couple of years and today was my first session. It’s a great project with all the profits going to a winter shelter for homeless people providing hot meals and a safe, warm place to sleep over the winter months.

First job: get out of bed!  A big ask this morning as I was a little ‘tender’ after having a great time with our friends having a Christmas meal and a few wee drinkies.

Then off to the site to unload 127 Normand Fir trees out of a Bedford truck, count them all and set them up for display.  The other volunteers and I greeted a steady stream of folks picking up their trees and we unwrapped and wrapped a bunch for our discerning customers to make sure they were getting what they wanted.  Michelle came along to pick our tree (as I “would have picked the wrong one”) which was generally the story of the day for the gentlemen picking trees.

After my stint I brought our tree home and Michelle and mum helped decorate it.  I love putting up our Christmas tree.  Mish and I have collected a number of ornaments over the years that remind us of our friends, families and the things we love.  We have ornaments ranging from home-made decorations from our first tree that we made out of paper when we were skint to my favourite; Boba Fett.

As I type this Mr Potato Head is surveying the living-room from his perch at the top of our tree.  It’s become a tradition for him to be up there in place of a star or a fairy.

There are some photos over at our flickr site.

This summer was a busy one for Broon and I.  We started off in May going back to Boston for a visit to see a great friend of ours get married and to see loads of lovely people we miss in Boston.  We took sooo many pictures as it was our first big holiday with our new camera… and then when we got home, we uploaded those photos to the external hard-drive on the computer and deleted them from the camera to make more room for work photos I needed to take at the church that weekend.  Three weeks later we moved to Musselburgh.  The move was smooth and all went well…. except our hard-drive has gone bust so sadly, no Boston photos to share…. but plenty of Boston memories.

Thanks soooo much to Lisa, Matt, Melissa and Tommy for looking after us.  Thanks to Bethany and Jeff for including us in your big weekend!  (Paul had the chance to sing in Bethany’s wedding – a Rascal Flats song I love – it’s the same one Bethany sang for us at our wedding…)  We also loved celebrating Pentecost at the Watershed worship service at our friend Rob’s church in Waltham.  It was lovely to be home in Boston again and definitely confirmed for us that when we move back stateside – it will be back to Boston.

My favourite part of the flat

But in the meantime, Musselburgh has definitely become our home sweet home.  We moved here in June and have loved having a summer by the seaside.  This is our first place we rented on our own since we were married three years ago and it’s been so lovely to be in our own place.  We have a guest room which doubles as Paul’s music room.  He can quite happily be heard strumming the banjo there.  The living room is my favourite place to be – loads of light and now all of our books are no longer piled in cupboards.  We actually have bookcases!  Late in summer we had a flatwarming party which was lovely to share the new place with our friends and family here.  For a look at the flat and the nearby seaside/harbour – have a look in the photo gallery.

The end of summer brought even more change – I’ve got a new job! For the next year I’ll be the Youth and Children’s Officer for The Diocese of Edinburgh covering the maternity leave of a good friend. I started a couple weeks ago and it’s brilliant.  Loads of new challenges and new connections.  This job is part-time so I’ve left afterschool club and now work full time in ministry between the new job and my other job at the church.  It’s a real joy to get to use my degree more and have the opportunity to spend more time thinking about the theology of children’s ministry and youth ministry.

As fall is quickly approaching, we are discovering a new season by the seaside and are enjoying seeing the sunsets and walking along the blustery harbour. We’re very much looking forward to mom and dad’s upcoming visit in November.  There are times when the Atlantic Ocean seems bigger than before – now is definitely one of those times.  While I love living here, I continually miss my family.  Right now, my Aunt Barb is fighting cancer for the second time.  I would give anything to be back by her side in New Jersey as she goes through the treatments. I wish it were possible to live nearby both our families at all times.  For now we will appreciate every moment with the Browns whilst we live in Musselburgh and when the Fawcetts come over for a visit we will spend as much time as possible with them and we will save up to go home soon for a visit again.

We’ve been back in Edinburgh for just over a week and it’s almost like we never left – we just fell right back into work and the regular routine.  It’s only now that I’m posting up our trip photos on flickr that I’m realising just how quickly our time at home went and just how much I already miss my family.  I absolutely love living in Edinburgh and am thrilled to be building a life here with Broon and my amazing in-laws, but it’s so hard to say goodbye to my family whenever we’re returning to Scotland.  Two weeks a year with my family is just too short a time… if only the ocean was smaller.  Check out our photos page for loads more Fawcett family photos from the trip home.

Mish and I have spent the last week and a bit in NJ. We’ve been spending time with the Fawcett clan and hanging out with Cody the dog.

Although it’s been brilliant spending time with the in-laws the best thing about this holiday is simply being off work.  We’ve tried not to over-extend ourselves so that we aren’t  worn out by the time we get home.  This time I think we’ll both be nicely rested and we won’t need a holiday from our holiday.

That being said we do have a road trip planned on Tuesday.  Mish and I will hit the road to Crisfield, MD to visit my Banjo hero’s: Pat and Patrick Costello.  As part of my birthday present this year, Mish got in touch with the folks that inspired and taught me to play (reasonably well) the banjo I got  for my 30th birthday.  She asked if we could come and visit and they were kind enough to invite us over to visit them during our trip to the US.  I am in awe of these guys for their generosity of spirit in sharing their musicianship.  I’ve lugged my banjo over the ocean to play a couple of songs with them – hopefully I’ll not make too much of an arse of myself.

We have just bought a shiny new Digital SLR camera for Mish’s birthday so look out for some photos from our trip soon.  They’ll mostly be of Cody the dog although hopefully we’ll have some from our trip to Maryland too.

broon oot…