Advent Calendar - Holiday Travel

A post for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories


Only a few Christmases have been spent away from home. Most notable was Christmas 2007 when I went to the UK to spend Christmas with my Grandad.

We arrived in England on 19 December, hoping for a white Christmas (this never being something that would happen in NZ). It was wonderful experiencing the short days, the general frostiness and the Christmas decorations in and on everyone's homes, but best of all was being able to spend time with Grandad and hearing more of his stories.

We planned out the Christmas feast with him (boneless turkey roast, the full range of roast veges, and the chocolate pudding from M&S Food), and I insisted on buying ridiculously posh Christmas crackers. We wanted him to have a great Christmas since he's normally on his own, and purchased numerous extra presents to complement those we'd brought with us - the present trolley below was pretty much all for him!


My brother arrived from London on Christmas Eve so we had a comparatively full house of four people for the big day. Grandad probably got a little tired of saying "Another one for me? Oh sweetie, you shouldn't have", the feast went off without a hitch, we got to watch the Queen and Doctor Who on TV at the "proper" times, and the only possible negative was the lack of a white Christmas. Although, just quietly, having a decent frost was a complete novelty for me and worked just as well!


There were plenty of other highlights too, like being able to show my partner Snowdonia on a gloriously cold and clear day, travelling down to Cardiff to spend New Year's with his sister and her husband, seeing the madness that is Harrods Christmas Sale (all you've heard is true) and some further appreciation of English Heritage and National Trust properties. All in all, it turns out that one fabulous Christmas trip is plenty for me.