Thanksgiving and St. Andrew's Homecoming Finale

What a weekend. We have done a lot of traveling in the last six months, but this weekend at home in Ayr was one of my all-time favorites. We are certainly lucky to have been here for Ayrshire's St. Andrew's Homecoming Finale.We started the weekend off with a good American Thanksgiving for 2 (plus left-overs that lasted... well, there are still leftovers!). We made a chicken instead of a turkey, but all the right fixings were made! Our starters were bacon-wrapped figs stuffed with cream cheese and an Italian shrimp, mozzarella, sun dried tomato, and basil salad. Delicious. We enjoyed those while the chicken cooked and we started our TDay movie- Monsters vs. Aliens (It's no Incredibles or Monsters, Inc., but entertaining!). We then finished up the fixings and carved the bird.

Our table included chicken, gravy, stuffing, good ol' tatties, green bean casserole, glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie (starting from a whole pumpkin, no cans of puree here in Scotland!). It was super delicious. On Saturday we made a second pumpkin pie with the rest of the pumpkin we had steamed and mashed. On Sunday, we made a chicken pot pie with some of the savoury leftovers. And there are still more leftovers!We took a quick TDay food coma nap, and then got ready for the first Homecoming Finale event, The Great Tartan Turnoot! Now, for anyone that's been on a good bar crawl, this event topped even the best. The Turnoot began at Wellington's Pub, where Scottish flags were affixed on our cheeks. Anyone wearing a kilt, flag, or tartan of some sort got a prize at each pub along the way. Wellington's gave us Robert Burns t-shirts. Other prizes were giant flags (that the crowd wore as capes), flag pins, and balloons.
Mike- ready to go in his Kilt and Sox jersey!

But here's the best part- when it was time to move to the next pub, we were all escorted in a parade led by bagpipes and banners through the town! The bagpipers would march right in to the pub and keep playing behind the bar. People were singing along and dancing through the streets. The second pub was Billy Bridge's, then on to the Tam 'O Shanter, Burns Statue Square where Robert Burns himself (looking good for 250 year old!) gave a speech and lit up the statue, and finally on to the Twa Dugs for a Ceilidh and haggis, neeps, and tatties! Along the way, we met loads of people and made some new friends. Great music, great people, and so much fun!Saturday came and we decorated our costumes for Sunday's Santa Dash 5K. We went into town to a Coffee and Craft Show fund raiser and walked around enjoying the festive atmosphere. That night, we enjoyed some great Scottish music at the St. Andrew's Folk Festival. The musicians were really good. Sadly, the event hadn't been well publicized and it was a small audience, but we really enjoyed it.

Sunday was race day! We had raised 100 pounds (well, Mike had at work) for Ayrshire Cancer Care. At 2:30, over one hundred Santas gathered by the Citadel to run/walk 5K. We ran down the beach and then back into town. The last 200 yards were straight up high street through the Christmas festivities! Everyone cheered on the Santas as we ran passed. Mike waved at EVERYONE he passed, and we stopped to take pictures of the amazing scenery (it was a perfect day- Arran was clear and snow-capped across the water!). I even had my picture taken with a kilted Scot driving a tuk-tuk! Check out our pictures and movies online:

Santa Dash

We checked out a bit more live music at the Folk Festival Sunday night. All in all, an amazing weekend!