As my final post for Blogmas, it only seems fitting that I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, with less than an hour to the big day, excitement levels are high in the Johnston household.

I hope that those of you who have followed my Blogmas posts (of which I only missed two - surely that's a fair enough effort?!) enjoyed them. I really enjoyed writing them all, and trying to challenge myself to stick to daily posting. Of course its not something I'll be able to keep up with when I return to uni, but hopefully its the start of very regular posting for Under The Scottish Rain. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment, read, retweet and favourite my posts - I love that they are getting across to so many people from so many different places, it truly is incredible.

I'll be writing a post or two after Christmas and on the run up to New Year, but I think I deserve a break after getting 22 posts up this month. And you all deserve a break too - life is hectic and enjoying a day with your family or friends or however you spend Christmas, if you celebrate it, is important.

Today we rushed around visiting relatives, doing plenty of Christmas prep and have a mouth watering smell of turkey around the whole house. I baked more mince pies, we iced the Christmas cake and even had time to prepare a rocky road 'elf cottage'. Now the stockings have been laid in hopes that we have been good enough for Santa to come, and we are lying in bed about to fall asleep to The Santa Clause in anticipation for a very early start.



I wish you the merriest Christmas of them all, and can't wait to read about everyone's gifts and see lots of happy pictures over twitter and instagram.

Here's my previous blogmas posts that you could maybe read if excitement is keeping you up late.
Blogmas Day 1 - The Christmas Tag
Blogmas Day 2 - Edinburgh's Christmas Market
Blogmas Day 3 - My Top Five Christmas Films
Blogmas Day 4 - Foodie Friday At Peter's Yard
Blogmas Day 5 - Managing University
Blogmas Day 6 - Winter Scarf Wishlist
Blogmas Day 7 - My Favourite Christmas Songs
Blogmas Day 8 - Preparing For Exams
Blogmas Day 9 - Why I Blog
Blogmas Day 10 - My Top Christmas Films
Blogmas Day 11 - Luxemme Wishlist and Voucher Giveaway
Blogmas Day 12 - OOTD At Buckingham Palace
Blogmas Day 13 - Book Review - House Rules
Blogmas Day 14 - Tacky Christmas Jumpers
Blogmas Day 15 - Winter Wonderland & Surviving The Hangover
Blogmas Day 16 - My Favourite Christmas Adverts
Blogmas Day 17 - Christmas Pasts
Blogmas Day 18 - Foodie Friday - London Food Diary
Blogmas Day 20 - The Body Shop Skin Care
Blogmas Day 21 - Christmas Baking - Peppermint Creams Recipe
Blogmas Day 22 - Mince Pies & Christmas Cookies Recipes

Love,
Emily
xxx

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As it is 'Throwback Thursday' I thought that today it would be appropriate to share some of my Christmas photos from a few years back and say a little about the traditions that we have in my house on Christmas day.

On Christmas Eve we still lay out our stockings for Santa, and we always have a picture while holding our stockings. We then leave some snacks for Santa and a glass of milk before heading off for a bed.




We three girls wake up at the crack of dawn. Scrap that, before the crack of dawn. We're just too excited for the day, and want to be awake for as much of it as possible! There's a rule in our house that we're not allowed into the living room (where our presents are) until 7am. So we get the house up and ready to walk in the living room door at bang on 7 o'clock. Present opening and exchanging always goes past surprisingly fast, and we find ourselves getting breakfast ready at 7.30. Breakfast consists of scrambled eggs on toast with smoke salmon, and now that we're older we even are allowed a glass of bubbly.



We then head to church for the Christmas day service, which I love because everyone is so jolly and the service is lots of fun, with kids showing their gifts and all my favourite hymns. Once back we now take Alfie for a walk where we meet lots of other dogs dressed in tinsel. Relatives are then picked up while mum begins preparing the meal.



What a whopper of a meal we have - but its Christmas day so why not eat your body weight in turkey and pigs in blankets? The dinner lasts for hours, as we like to have breaks to digest each course by playing games like headbands, music quizzes, and hum that tune. Its great fun, and impossible not to laugh and smile throughout the whole thing. At the end of the dinner we then play a proper board game together. This usually is Pictionary, but as my dad hates drawing we've started to branch out and this year the game of choice is Articulate.



We also have a ruling that TV is not allowed on Christmas day. That way we're able to spend much more time with one another, and get to pretend we're all kids again. And I love it.

It's funny how we've got ourselves into routines of which presents are opened when and what games are played, but I supposed the tried and tested method works, as we know that we will love the day. And that's why my family are obsessed with Christmas, its such a happy fun filled day to look forward too, where no matter what is going on we can still laugh and spend time together.

I'd love to hear some of your traditions, or routines that you have over the Christmas period!

Covered Magazine are running a little competition for bloggers that I thought I'd take part in. All you need to do to enter is to post a picture of your favourite holiday memory, and tweet the link to @covered_mag on twitter and you could be in the running to win a pretty amazing prize.

Since I'm currently lusting over holidays abroad, and picked up some brochures to start looking for next summer already despite still planning for this busy summer of travelling, I thought that this competition gave me the perfect opportunity to look through some photos from previous holidays. It also lets me escape the snow that is currently flying about my window despite it being spring!

There have been so many holidays that I've been on that I have loved so much that I cry on the last night. Family holidays are one of my favourite things ever, just having the family away from the hustle and bustle of the everyday routines we're in, relaxes us all. I've always enjoyed spending quality time with the fam, and being somewhere new that we can explore together adds excitement to that time.

One of my favourite places in the world is Turkey - all my family and friends know that I dream of travelling the Aegean coast of Turkey when I finish university, and discovery all the ancient towns that I'm taught about in my degree for myself. This desire was realised when we went on a couple of family holidays to Turkey. The history that these towns have is just so fascinating - with so many different cultures and influences shaping the different areas. The last time I visited Turkey, we stayed in Gumbet, in the peninsula of Bodrum - the birth place of my favourite ancient historian, and a site of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It's no surprise that Bodrum is on my list of places to travel to - a rare occurrence as there's so many places to see, so why go back to one you've already seen?

When I saw this competition, I started to look through my album from this holiday, consisting of three different memory cards, so indeed it was no mean feat. There were so many pictures that I wanted to share - some nights when we got drunk on the all inclusive cocktails, boat trips, scenic pictures of the bay that we were lucky enough to wake up to everyday and many of the historic areas that I loved. But the picture that I've decided on is, ironically, not even from Turkey.

Bodrum is just a short boat ride to the Greek island of Kos, so one day we booked tickets to go and visit the island. The day wasn't a favourite day of the holiday, we found the beaches of the island to be pretty crowded, and more about tourism rather than culture, but non the less we enjoyed the scenery and the heat.



This picture was taken by my dad. We had decided to have a break from walking and settled at the harbour, where we sat on the top step, and had our feet dangling in the water which lapped up at the second step. We were all engrossed in our books - a standard sight from our family, who are all avid readers especially on holiday. What I like most about this picture is that we are all looking out to Turkey, which is the land you can see beyond the sea. This picture seems to encapsulate the heat of the sun on our backs, as well as the gentle and refreshing sea breeze, and the stillness and calm that surrounded the island.

Let me know in the comments if you've ever been to Turkey and what you thought of it? Or have you got a place you're dreaming of visiting one day, like me? Be sure to enter the competition - the winning hamper looks awesome and a total dream to win for those who have caught the travelling bug - and if you do, leave me your links for me to check out your #MyHolidayMemories.

Love,
Emily
xxx

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Our holiday to England was mostly a walking holiday, we had our dog Alfie with us, so we couldn't leave him for more than a couple of hours "forcing" us to explore the great outdoors.


One walk we went on brought us past a Church, with a fascinating graveyard. The majority of the grave stones were in very bad condition, falling over; crumbling; and inscriptions that were barely readable. One side of the graveyard was very over grown, and presumably the original graveyard to go with the church. Only myself and my dad were brave enough to walk waist high in the long grasses. The others stuck to the opposite side of the path, where the graves were only a couple of hundred years old.



What was slightly unusual was that there was one recent grave; dedicated to the death of a one year old child. This grave stuck out because it had balloons attached to it, and when we went to look at it, we discovered it was a year since this baby's death. In a overgrown, seemingly forgotten about graveyard, this place obviously meant something to those parents who chose to bury their child here. A place that isn't on recent maps and that locals whom we asked for directions didn't even know existed.



Furthermore, what resonated with me was that this church and graveyard was built and used a few hundred years after the graveyard I was working on in my dig. Both were in stark contrast to one another, for a start my graveyard had no head stones or grave markers, whereas some graves were marked with large table stones. This graveyard was obviously Christian, with large crosses scattered about the place to emphasis their faith. Poulton's older graves possibly weren't Christian, and their was no portrayal of their faith found in their graves. It was really interesting to explore this graveyard, only days after I had been working in a completely different burial ground.


Thanks for reading, I think that's the last of the holiday posts- unless I find more photos, or think of more places to share!

Love,
Emily
xxx

Image source

I've never actually taken the time to write down the things that I want to do in my life, or actually make a list, but the other day I was told a great quote which got me thinking. The mum of the kids that I've been child minding for the last few weeks was telling me yesterday about a great couple that she met on holiday 9 years ago and still regularly emails. She told me of how they worked for the start of their lives, in order to get enough money to get by, and for the last 20 years have travelled. They tour countries on a motor bike, and I was told they are in their 70s at least. By the sounds of it, they have done life right.

This lady wrote in one email a little comparison of life, one that I really like, and you would have possibly seen me tweet it too.

"Life is like toilet paper; the less you have of it, the quicker it goes."

You guessed it- another holiday post!

While I was on holiday with my family in Leominster, we took a day trip to the Rhayader Dams which are in Wales. My brother acted as a tour guide for us, telling us about the history of these truly stunning water stores. If you've ever watched "The Dam Busters", then you may recognise some of the photos that I have included in this post.



Not only are these dams famous for their beautiful scenery that surrounds them, but they also played a key part in World War 2. The British Air Force used the Rhayader Dams to practice bouncing bombs off of the water in order to cause an explosion off of the dams, thusly destroying a German town, which was the target of this attack. The film "The Dam Busters" is based on this event, but was filmed partly at the Rhayader Dams.When standing on these dams, it was amazing to think that such activities were occurring where we stood, around 70 years ago.



The dams are also incredible to view from standing on top of them, looking down I experienced a strong feeling of Vertigo, and must admit I didn't feel quite so safe on the view chamber that had been created. Hills surround them, making them feel very enclosed and peaceful, but you can imagine the sound that these incredible structures would make when they were actually turned on, and surprisingly a house was situated at the bottom of the largest one! Looking into the actual reservoir, you can't see even close to the bottom, the still water was so vast. Anthony told us of how for one of the dams, they flooded a whole village, and when the water level was very low, you can actually see the church spire and the tops of the taller buildings.


We also found a little chapel, just off the path to the first of the dams, which offered us a break from the sun and the walking- and also some music as it has an old pump organ, which my brother played as we explore the area.




It made for a lovely day out, we took the dog, a picnic and plenty of water and had a good ol' time exploring the hills and the wildlife around these spectacular features.




Much love,
Emily
xxx

Many of you will have celebrated the annual Father's Day on the day that was set, Sunday the 15th of Jun, with presents and special meals for your dad. In my family, however, this proved to be a bit of a problem in that, my dad was away for the most part of the day, as was my sister Eleanor. Not wanting to short straw his day, we decided to celebrate it on Wednesday, the 18th, as Eleanor was home from her Duke Of Edinburgh Award Expedition for the night, and all three of us could spoil him together.

On the Sunday, my mum and dad returned from a couple of nights away to celebrate their 30th Wedding Anniversary, and we gave our dad his card from us, as well as the present that my brother had sent up for him. Otherwise, we didn't make too much of a fuss, which really sounds rather cruel; we had a normal dinner and sat down to watch a movie like any other night.

We, of course, had already told him that we were giving him his own day later on, otherwise that would have been rather would have been mean of us. On Wednesday, Eleanor and I made a trip down to Asda to gather up the supplies, the three of us had decided to make him his favourite tea- a curry followed by his all time favourite desert, butterscotch flavoured angel delight.



When Holly returned from work, the three of us set to creating a master piece, if I say so myself, along with lots of extra Indian bits and bobs. We washed down the meal with some ciders, as it was a sunny day but still a school night, and munched on all the naan breads and popadoms. The smile on his face when we brought out the angel delight was comical. He's loved the desert for years, but never has it because its not exactly the nicest of puddings, he looked like the cat who had gotten the cream!



My dad said that he didn't want any presents, so we thought that preparing a meal would be our gift to him. But I couldn't resit adding in a couple of presents- his favourite sweets- Wine Gums- as well as a couple of scary films, which we love to watch when my mum is working.

Although my mum wasn't working on Wednesday, we decided to watch the less scary of the two- House at The End of the Street. My love for Max Theriot has been rekindled after watching him in it, I couldn't help it. Its a really good film, although a few jumpy points in which my mum screamed so loudly she woke the dog, and had to hold my hand throughout most of it.

Overall, it was a really lovely afternoon for my dad, very relaxing and enjoyable. He deserves the best, and I love him to pieces. I love going on dogs walks just the two of us and being able to talk about anything that has been on my mind; I love listening to the music that he recommends or comparing different vinyl; and I love sitting around with him and laughing at stupid things we think of. He really is the best dad around.

Us three girls with our dad back in November

Thanks for reading,
Lots of love,
Emily
xxx

For Christmas, my aunt and uncle gifted my sisters, my mum and I all a voucher to a chocolate making workshop at a local chocolatier, called Cocoa Ooze. What with all our busy schedules, and my living away from home, its been next to impossible for us to actually book into one of the workshops. But, only 6 months after we got the voucher, we were able to find a time that suited us all, and that was Thursday evening.

One of the things that signifies the start of summer for me, is when we make our own version of the classic Greek tzatziki. The last couple of days in Aberdeen have given us glorious sunshine, gorgeous blue skies and days of doing nothing other than worrying what ice-cream flavour to pick and what book to read.

Yesterday, my mum and I decided to set about making our home made Tzatziki like dip. We don't follow a recipe, instead we put in rough amounts of the things we think make the dip delicious. When I looked up an actual recipe yesterday, out of curiosity, it turns out we do miss out a few ingredients here and there, but overall the dip still tastes yummy. And here's how its done:

Ingredients:
1 Cucumber
1 large pot of natural yoghurt
Salt
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
Mint

How To:

• First, scoop out the inside of a cucumber and put this in a bowl, this is the watery part, and to do this we use a melon baller. Then grate the rest of the cucumber, without skin, and add this to the bowl.
• Then pour the whole pot of natural yoghurt into the same bowl
• Add a pinch (1/2 a tea spoon) of salt
• Then a tea spoon of olive oil
• Add about 5 mint leaves (but this can be adjusted depending on how much you like mint) and cut them up finely before adding to the mixture
• And finally, add as much lemon juice as you prefer, we like it to taste quite lemony so for us its a lot. 
• And mix it all together

We usually leave the dip in the fridge for a day to let the flavours infuse one another, and find that after a few days the dip tastes its best, that's if it actually lasts that long.

Yesterday, we made an 1 hour and 1/2 car trip to Glen Livet, where my dad was running a 10km. He did absolutely amazing, and came 7th in the 'Super Vets' category, and I'm so proud of him. He started off going out for morning runs about 2 years ago. Running was something that he did when he was younger, but gave it up due to work and the family taking up all his time. So when he decided to start running again, he would go out for little runs in the morning, and come back completely out of breathe, face red and he wouldn't be able to talk for a good 5 minutes. Now he goes out a few times each week and will run for a good 45 minutes to an hour. How he does it, I do not know, but its something that he finds relaxing as well as rewarding. He's only competed in a few 10kms, but he's already decided to do a half marathon in the later half of the year. I'm really proud of how much time and effort he dedicates to his running now, he has the proper gear for it and everything, so he obviously enjoys it a lot, which makes me happy for him.

The Glen Livet 10km was a really beautiful setting for the race. It was very windy, which meant that we had to wrap up for it, but the sun was shining which really made the surrounding scenery look stunning. The hills against the blue sky and so much greenery made it feel like spring had come.







 Its really motivated me to start going out running, I don't know how much progress I'll make, as I said the same thing at Christmas time and managed 3 runs then gave up. But with university now basically finished, and the whole summer ahead of me, I'm going to take a leaf out of my dad's book and start to do short runs and gradually build them up.

Outfit Of The Day

Since the Scottish weather is never reliable, layers were essential. I thought I was adequately dressed, however, I was still very cold when the wind blew, but when we stood in the sunny spots, I was fine.



What I wore:

• Pink Jersey Jumper from Boohoo 
• Leggings from Marks and Spencers
• Dark Green Converse
• Necklace from Internationale
• Coat from Next
• Tartan Scarf from The Edinburgh Woollen Mill
• Brown Satchel Bag which was my mum's