Christmas Eve
A leisurely departure from Heathrow brought us into Glasgow at 2:30. We picked up a chatty taxi driver who charged us £28 for the trip to The Sherbrooke Castle Hotel for our two day stay.
Once we had settled in we walked around to Adam’s house in Aytoun Road, an 8 minute stroll according to Google. Our hotel room has a nice King sized bed a large shower room and plenty of space. The whole hotel must have been the home of a rich 19th C Glaswegian. Despite its conversion to a hotel the place retains much of the charm and decoration associated with its former role.
When we arrived at Adam’s house he was preparing to fetch the Fuller-Reid’s from the airport. First of all Alex and the girls returned with Ads and then Greg turned up with his hired car.
We chatted and messed around for awhile and then we had our supper consisting of a cooked ham and macaroni cheese. I thought it a bit of an odd mixture, but it was easy to prepare as the house has no proper kitchen. Sarah and Adam are having their kitchen expanded and remade.
Plenty of drink and several games of Empire finished off our time at Aytoun Road. Maggi and I returned to Sherbrooke Castle.
Christmas Day
A large Full Scottish Breakfast started the day downstairs in the hotel restaurant.
According to Sadie the kids awoke at 5 am to open their stocking presents. As we walked over from the hotel we received our 2nd call to see how long before we would arrive so that they could open the rest of their presents.
A few moments after we arrived the presents were opened. Packaging strewn all over the room represented the aftermath of lots of presents for 6 children.
I did receive one present, part of secret Santa, from Alex. She bought me a small cribbage set and Alex and I played a game later in the day.
Once all the present opening had finished I wanted to go for a walk. I managed to rope in Sorely, Carrie, Maggi and Islay. Islay guided us around Polokshiels. She took us to Maxwell Park and then back to our hotel. We sat and had a nice drink in our hotel.
As a family we watched very little TV on Christmas Day. Nativity, the one film that we all sat down together to see, proved very entertaining. The film stars Martin Freeman plus a whole range of recognisable character actors who make it ideal feel good Christmas fare.
I helped Sarah with the final preparations and servings for our big Xmas lunch. For some reason Sarah wanted to serve the food into bowls. I just followed although I didn’t understand why.
Although the food had come from M&S and included bread pudding, red cabbage, mashed carrots, stuffing, roast potatoes, sprouts and of course turkey. The sprouts didn’t cook properly despite us following the cooking instructions, they remained more or less raw. Everything else worked well.
Just after we had finished the main course the door bell rang and in came Rachel, Iona, Craig and Joe. Despite the fact that Joe sat next to me he still didn’t say thank you for the accommodation he and his daughters had used in La Colle.
The four of them had celebrated Xmas lunch at The Hut which is somewhere west of Glasgow. This seems to me a penance rather than a holiday treat, but they seemed to be returning to Glasgow in good moods. They stayed for just over an hour and then left because they had visitors coming to their home. Iona remained silent about the recent personnel problems of the COE despite working at Lambeth Palace.
The rest of the evening people watched the telly, but I became bored and did a lot of washing up. I received some help from Keir, Adam and Maggi, but no one else.
Maggi and I returned to the hotel around 10 pm. We walked along and felt overdressed in our thick coats and scarves as the night was dry and quite warm.
Boxing Day
For some reason I choose the Smoked Haddock and poached eggs for my cooked breakfast. I also ate yogurt with fruit plus toast. I really don’t know why I felt hungry by 1 pm.
We paid our extras and departed. Our suitcases free from the vast number of presents we had brought up with us on Christmas Eve. The short walk to Adam’s house a much easier walk than would have been the case a couple of days earlier.
Nothing of note happened in the morning. Alex and family left a few minutes before Adam drove us to the airport with Keir and Islay. The three of them intended to continue on into the city centre where Keir wanted to sort out his Nintendo. Islay had already bought a jumper with some of her Xmas present.
We set off roughly on time on the flight back to London.