Alfie enjoying his first white Christmas

Alfie, our Great Dane puppy enjoyed the snow - he tryed to catch snow flakes as they fell on the patio! The weather has been great over Christmas - sunny days bringing the frost to life and making the snow covered hills glow pink. It has been very, very cold. Minus 7 during the day and probably minus 10 at night. The ski resorts are all open and we may head up to the hills tomorrow. We spent a lazy Boxing Day recovering from too much food and drink on Christmas Day - just the one walk around the field for the dogs and then back to the fire. It was a lovely day and even better as we went out for lunch so no washing up!

Still some late vacancies for Hogmanay - and we intend to bring in 2010 with gusto. I for one will be glad to see the back of it as it has not been the best year for me health wise. Hopefully next year will be far better - it starts well with my 50th birthday bash at The Barn. I'm looking forward to it already.

AN EARLY CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS

The Christmas spirit must be getting to Jim as he rarely (if ever) gives anything away and today he has agreed that I can give customers a holiday from credit/debit card transaction supplements!

There have been such problems recently with cheques going astray in the post (a regular occurence during the Festive season) that we really want to encourage more of our customers to book and pay via the secure server. It seems only fair that we should make that cost free for guests - you can even look upon it as a saving as you don't have to post us a cheque. Of course, we can still take payment in the traditional way (including postal orders) but if you are reading this blog you are already online so presumably already familiar with online booking and payment.

We do have a couple of cancellations for Hogmanay week so if you have not yet booked there are a few spaces. The Oban Hogmanay Street Party may have been cancelled but at the Barn our celebrations are going ahead - and it's all free for our guests. Live music, midnight bonfire, fireworks - our usual Heath Robinson bad weather extension for the kids and pets etc and our usual excellent house party atmosphere.

We hope to see you over the Festive Season - if we don't have a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Hogmanay Menu

Just had a look at Andrew's Festive menus and both Christmas and Hogmanay look very tasty! I think we might just book ourselves a table for Christmas to save on all the bother or cooking a turkey. Hogmanay is usually a 'family hold back' situation as guests come first and tables are in big demand. We will probably do what we usually do and have dinner at home first and then go up to the Barn when the music and dancing starts. Our midnight bonfire this year will be spectacular as it is huge - I don't know where all these pallets have appeared from but they should certainly burn even if we get rain. Fingers crossed as ever for some good clear cold weather. Some vacancies left for both Christmas week and Hogmanay and this year for the first time we are accepting short breaks (4 and 5 night stays).