We began our day by attending Church at the St. Andrews Baptist Church which is located in down town St. Andrews. We will tell you more about the Church in a separate posting of our blog. The rest of the day was pretty low key. We spent most of the day in our room nursing our colds. There were carols in the hotel lobby during the evening.
Christmas Day-
Christmas day also began with a worship service at the Church. After Church we headed back to the hotel for a wonderful four course Christmas dinner. The dinner to
ok place in the Road Hole Grill, which is located on the top floor of the hotel overlooking the Old Course and the North Sea. It was a truly special place to be able to spend Christmas. Rebekah had venison while I had the traditional turkey, dressing and potatoes. After lunch we returned to our room to open the gifts that our families had sent with us, as well as the gifts that we found in town a couple of days earlier. We concluded our Christmas celebration by watching “White Christmas” and calling our families back home.Boxing Day-
The chaps over here in Britain are smart enough to know that you always need a day to recover from the holidays, so they have one. The day after Christmas is Boxing day. As I understand it, this was originally a day to thank the servants for their work during the year. More recently it has turned into a day of relaxation and after Christmas sales (although none of the shops were open in St. Andrews).
The hotel was having a formal gala, and Rebekah was asked to fill a table of eight in order to add to the atmosphere. Rebekah invited a couple that she had met at the American Women in Scotland Club when she was there for Thanksgiving. Their names were CC and Angus. CC was from Georgia (in the US) and Angus was from Sterling, Scotland. They had met on the Internet and had only actually been together for four days before they were married. Rebekah had also invited the Pastor from the Baptist Church, Liam and his wife Kathryn. They are a very nice young couple who will soon be moving not too far from our house. Since we do not know too many other people over here we asked Liam and Kath if they knew anyone else that would be interested in attending. They introduced us to Jeff and Meigan. They are an American couple who have been over here for the past five years. He is finishing up his PHD in theology and she is teaching in the nearby town of Dundee.
(left to right: Angus, CC, Liam, Kathryn, Rebekah, Graig, Meigan, Jeff)
The Gala was a black tie event. Here in Scotland that means either a tuxedo or a full dress kilt. The split was generally about 50/50. At our table three of the men wore kilts with the fourth in a tux. As you can guess, I was one of the three. I figured when else would I ever get the chance. The dinner was again very good. There was a live jazz band providing the dinner music. After dinner the Jazz band was replaced with more of a “rock” band and the dance floor was open for business. Every one at our table got into the action and we danced until midnight. When the band left we stayed up a wee bit longer and had some enjoyable conversation before deciding to head to bed.
The next morning we all gathered together for breakfast. Although most of us had only met the night before, the conversation flowed as if we had known each other for ages. After breakfast Rebekah took us on a tour of the hotel. We saw each of the different types of rooms, from the basic rooms that we were all staying in all the way up to the rooms that were bigger than most of our houses. We all agreed that This Boxing day experience was not something that we would soon forget. This entire event made for an incredible way to begin our time here in Scotland.
The next morning we all gathered together for breakfast. Although most of us had only met the night before, the conversation flowed as if we had known each other for ages. After breakfast Rebekah took us on a tour of the hotel. We saw each of the different types of rooms, from the basic rooms that we were all staying in all the way up to the rooms that were bigger than most of our houses. We all agreed that This Boxing day experience was not something that we would soon forget. This entire event made for an incredible way to begin our time here in Scotland.
