Three French Hens

Travel Tales

Most (adult) years we have found ourselves travelling for Christmas. Most of my family Christmases have been in my home town, 6 hours away, while the years that we spend with K’s family we drive about an hour away.

It’s crazy whichever way, as I have nearly always had to work on Christmas Eve so the travel has always been last minute which just sucks for everyone. Last year I think we actually went up to K’s family the day before Christmas Eve and I drove back for work that day – much better for K and her family but not the funnest drive for me with all the traffic

When I was a child, we always stayed home for Christmas – mostly because 2 of my older siblings would be coming home, plus we were close to Mum’s family anyway. We would mostly have my Grandma staying and some yearsour close family friends would come for dinner, others my aunt, uncle and cousins would come down, and still others we’d drive out to their farm for most of the day. The farmhouse was a great place to spend the day but honestly, I hated having to get in the car and drive nearly an hour there and back in the middle of summer when all I wanted to do was stay home and play with my new toys or read my new book.

Because my Dad’s family was quite a way away (6-7 hour drive), every year when I was a child he and I would go off on a week’s trip to visit my Gran and some of the extended family about a week before Christmas. Sometime I would beg my parents to have one Christmas with that side of the family as they always seemed to be making the most interesting preparations but it was always just too far and too hard to get everyone there.

This year we’re having Christmas at our place with K’s family which is very exciting – both in that we get to play host and also that we don’t have to go anywhere at all on Christmas Day. Instead we’re looking forward to having a laid back day for Sprocket’s first Christmas and just hoping like anything the early forecasts are right and it’s sunny because if we can’t have everyone outside under the gazebo we’re going to have to sit on each other’s laps to make room inside!