I may have mentioned several times before that I love Christmas. As a child, it was all about the excitement of the tree and the mountain of presents underneath it. Now, though, I find the whole period rather magical. It’s the genuine pleasure of giving rather than receiving, and the chance to spend proper quality time with family and friends.
The 2025 festive season was no exception. We had a wonderful time, with a full house for a few days — and I loved every minute of it. There were events on many days both leading up to and after the main event itself. In fact, I managed an impressive run of being out 11 nights out of 12 in the couple of weeks beforehand. Some people might call that excessive. I prefer to call it festive commitment.
Karen, unsurprisingly, sees things slightly differently.
Much of the preparation stresses her out. Apparently the house needs to be spring-cleaned from top to bottom at least twice. We also have to buy roughly double the amount of food and provisions actually required — just in case. Much of this then gets squirrelled away, only to be rediscovered the following autumn. It doesn’t help that Karen needs to feel fully in control of everything at all times. She asks for help, but then expends just as much energy bemoaning how nobody (me) does things exactly how she wants them done.
That said, she really is excellent at hosting, and it’s only because she wants everything to be absolutely perfect for everyone.
So the magic of Christmas lived on in our house — and long may it continue, along with the little family traditions we’ve created. I’m not entirely sure that Ellie and I wearing sauna hats every Christmas night will become one of them, but stranger things have happened.
Post-Christmas we were very busy as well, although that may simply have been an antidote to going from a full house to an empty one.
It’s also a time to pause and reflect. We feel we are most blessed with our family and circle of friends. One of our reflections just before Christmas was that Karen’s hip problem was getting worse, and she finally agreed that we should look to bring forward the required surgery. We found some alternative dates from the consultant and chose the earliest one that was the least disruptive to our plans — which is very much a relative concept.
This meant we had to reschedule a planned trip to California, which cost me roughly two full days of rebooking. The changes also impacted Neil, but he was very accommodating, particularly as he could see how difficult things were becoming for his Mum.
I’m not sure we can say we’re looking forward to the surgery itself, but we are very much looking forward to Karen getting her full mobility back and, most importantly, being out of pain.
One thing we are definitely looking forward to is formally welcoming Ellie into the family with the wedding in September. Karen is loving being involved in the planning and execution, although Barry, Neil and I have been known to exchange eye-rolls when discussions drift back to table runners.
The football feels different with the new manager at Carrow Road. While we do need to start putting more points on the board, I remain optimistic that a comfortable mid-table finish is achievable.
Golf has been intermittent thanks to the weather and general availability, but I’ve really enjoyed playing pickleball and padel when I can. I’m nowhere near satisfied with the standard of my game, but there’s hope yet.
And so, on to the first trip of the year — one that’s been a full year in the planning. We’ve talked about visiting more of the Far East for some time and decided that a cruise would be the best way to do it. Using Karen’s inheritance from her mum, one was booked, and we added an overnight trip up to the River Kwai for good measure.
Karen is understandably a little nervous about the trip, largely because of her hip and some bad memories from our last cruise, where her back went and she ended up in a wheelchair. Surprisingly, I’ve suffered hardly any of my usual pre-trip anxiety. I think that’s because everything is planned and booked; once we’re on board, everything should be taken care of for us.
Our flights out to Singapore were originally booked using Avios in economy, as that was all that was available at the time. Just before Christmas, however, some Avios seats opened up in Club World — so we’ll have the luxury of a bed for the long overnight flight. A very festive upgrade indeed.
