Friday 25 December

Merry Christmas! 🎄 Zac and Sam woke us all up at 7am. Belle was disappointed that Santa hadn’t been, but I had warned her! I am very glad today has finally arrived – I have been keeping the secret of their Christmas presents for soooooo long! And now all is revealed 😉 

We didn’t even ask the kids for their wish list this year – we decided to give everyone an “experience” rather than several presents we had to carry over here. And the gift keeps on giving as we all benefit from the presents! Ross, Jarrod and Tim are off to a Manchester United game at Old Trafford, Abi is taking us all to the Warner Bros Studio Tour (ie. Harry Potter World), Zac and Sam are taking us to Madame Tussaud’s and the London Eye, I am taking everyone to a musical on West End, and Belle is (surprise, surprise) taking us all to Disneyland Paris! 

We had a leisurely 8am breakfast and boarded the coach at 9am to go to St Andrews Golf Course. This was an optional extra which not many on the tour took up, but we thought it might be a long day if we didn’t go! We crossed the River Forth and drove through beautiful countryside and several towns to reach St Andrews. We were shown around the town, some cathedral ruins, the University, the cafe where Prince William met Kate Middleton (which only interested me!), and the coach drove around the golf course. We were given time to explore it on foot – it was surprising how many people were actually playing golf today! Everyone we passed wished us a merry Christmas, it was a lovely atmosphere.

   
   
We were told we could walk on the famous little bridge, but water covered some of the course and the bridge was actually fenced off.  So we went up to the fourth floor of the hotel, which had great views of the golf course and out to the North Sea, and the beach where Chariots of Fire was filmed. We then enjoyed a drink each in the hotel restaurant – the girls won with hot chocolates containing marshmallows, whipped cream and chocolate flakes!    

   
 We left at 12.15pm and returned to the hotel. We skipped lunch today as our Christmas dinner supplied in a private dining room by the hotel starts at 3.45! We convinced the kids to have a rest time, and were back downstairs for dinner at the scheduled time. We had a lovely three course meal, with party hats and Christmas crackers. It seems an appropriate time for Christmas dinner seeing as it was dark outside by 4.30! We had finished and were back in our room by 6.30pm. It has been our quietest Christmas ever – we are now looking for a movie to watch together just so the family time doesn’t end so soon. While it has been a lovely experience, and quite different to our usual busy celebrations, we are looking forward to filling Oyster Bay with people next year!