In a few days it will be Christmas Day. For the first time in seven years, I won’t be altering the lyrics of Chris Rea’s hit song to “Flying Home for Christmas”. I am staying in Switzerland for Christmas and New Year. It’s a strange feeling, not getting everything packed and psyching myself up for battling through the huge lines at security and passport control.
The truth is that I feel like my Christmas was a couple of weekends ago. We went back to the UK to attend my grandparents’ 90th birthday party. Having one grandparent turn 90 is amazing, never mind both of them within a day of each other. My grandma is actually one day older than my granddad. It was a great reason to celebrate: so often people are too busy to meet up and never quite get round to doing it.
I was trying to think about all of the changes that they would have seen within their lifetime and my head hurt after a while because a list of everything that has changed in the last 90 years is pages upon pages long. And they are even up with technology – they check my blog to see what I am up to on a regular basis!
I can’t remember the last time that all of our family was in the same room at the same time. It was so nice to see and catch up with everyone before the real panic of Christmas kicked in. We had dinner together and because, it was a basically a Christmas dinner with Brussel sprouts, Christmas crackers and mince pies, I feel like I haven’t missed out on a traditional English Christmas. At least this time I didn’t fall asleep in front of the TV after drinking too much Bucks Fizz before 11am!

Celebrating with Grandma and Granddad – can you spot the 90-year-olds?
I was hoping that staying in Switzerland would mean that I would be guaranteed a white Christmas but the weather is far too warm to snow in the city at the moment. It looks like it might snow next week. In the meantime I will be eating lots of Fondue and Raclette which are traditional winter eats here. It does make a change from eating dry turkey for the next two weeks but the apartment will definitely smell like smelly socks for a week.
Wherever you are and whomever you are with, I wish you a relaxing and enjoyable holiday season.