Home for Christmas

Christmas to me means family, the gathering of the clan. AND time off work.

It’s a well needed holiday period with time for adults to recharge and refuel the mind and soul with books, games, chatter, lounging, plenty of home-cooked food and not forgetting some quality BBC Drama and a box of chocolates of course. It's also time for the kids to feel free.

Christmas Eve (eating the cake and carrot intended for Father Christmas and Rudolph)

The memories of this Christmas that will stay with me are the sisters and cousins being together. That’s where the magic lies.  History repeats itself with the cousins' song and dance perfomances, the Christmas Eve late night excitement (both grown-ups and kids), and listening out for Father Chrsitmas on the roof (S: "I can hear him, I can"). 

Of course Christmas Day morning was all about the presents, discovering stockings and that Father Christmas really had been. The believing is just so wonderful to behold.  Gabriel was wowed by every single thing he pulled from his stocking, even the tangerine. Favourite pressies included a Woolly Mammoth and some Knights to play in his wooden castle that had been made by Daddy for his birthday which is on the 23rd  December- how tricky and lovely at the same time is that!

Our Mama’s current house is not actually the home of our childhood but it has the same atmosphere and is full of a collection of objects that hold such visual memories - simple things like the mirror, the print, the teapot, the bread knife. Part of the joy of returning home for Christmas is the comfort of the familiar.

A trip home is not complete without a jaunt to Bradford-on-Avon, the prettiest little town near Bath.

Barton Farm, Bradford-on-Avon

I found it amusing to be in a place like Barton Farm, now as a sensible grown-up and mother when it doesn’t seem that long ago that I was hanging out there doing teenager things!

Next trip back home I intend to be even more grown up and have a child-free weekend escape and try out the Thermae Bath Spa as part of my New Year plan.

For now I feel rejuvenated enough from the slow and simple days spent en familia.

Ready to embrace the New Year.

Bekka