Yes, it’s been snowing here in the UK for the last 2 days and the South East region, where I live, has suffered the most of it with up to 8 inches of snow. Now for those of you who live in continental Europe and other cold temperate regions, 8 inches may not be much but believe me when I tell you that it could do some real damage with the basic services here in the UK. I mean, last year alone, when 2 inches of snow fell, the country was almost at a standstill!

Anyway, I digress.

It was my first, yes, FIRST Christmas away from the Philippines. See, I’ve already been to Manila earlier in December so going back again just for the holidays would be extremely expensive. So, faced with the fact that I will be wearing layers and layers of clothing in time for Christmas dinner was a novelty to me. As was the rest of the celebrations.

Went down with P to Ludlow, Shropshire – the town where he grew up after moving from Gothenburg, and where his parents currently reside. We came down on the 24th of December, in time for a traditional Swedish Christmas Eve dinner. Well, as traditional as P’s mum could prepare it. Actually, we just had smoked salmon and some winter vegetables. See, the traditional Swedish Christmas Eve dinner would include ham, which was all too much to prepare for 4 people.

After dinner, me and P went to the local pub to meet up with his old mates from school. It was so good seeing P so at home and happy to see his friends. Although seeing them talking and reminiscing about their childhood memories, I missed mine as hell. At one point, I felt completely out-of-place and so wanting to be home. But then I easily snap back to reality and tried not to be rude with P’s friends. As midnight came, we were on our way back to his parents’ house. And with a sweet, goodnight kiss, we dozed off.

The next morning, we woke up to the sound of his mum’s voice, “Good morning! Merry Christmas! Father Christmas is waiting.” She was up early to put the turkey in the oven. When I finally dragged P out of the bed and sorted out to label the presents we brought with us, we had breakfast and headed off to the front room to open presents. It was so comforting to be there. It had been a long time since I felt such a homey and family activity. P was knelt by the tree, handing out the presents laid out by the foot as he reads the cards/labels.

“From Mum & Dad”
“From P…..”
“From Tomten” (Tomten is Father Christmas in Swedish)
“From O… & B……” (P’s parents)

To my surprise, I got quite a lot of presents: 3 from P, 2 from P’s parents. I was deeply surprised to get presents from them. I mean, yes, I knew that P had presents for me, but I didn’t realise that his parents would go to any trouble picking a present for me, let alone 2. It was so sweet!

Anyway, when everyone got all of their Christmas loot, it was time to see what each one of them are. First up was the biggest box, which was B’s present from his boys. She ripped the paper carefully to show a PC speaker box. Baffled, she thanked P and his dad and started finding what she would do with PC speakers. O was really grinning silently in his chair and P insisted that she open the box. When she did, she shrieked of excitement to find that they weren’t speakers, it was a mixing bowl that she had her eye on for a long time now! She almost cried of happiness and relief at the same time. It was classic and O planned it all!

After all the presents have been unwrapped, P and his dad lounged about in front of the PC while me and his mum were running about in the kitchen preparing for the Christmas lunch. I was so nervous all the time but managed not to break any of her fine china, which she had inherited from her grandmother. It was also nice having spent time with her as she shared stories about P’s childhood.

Then it was time to eat.

After a delicious serving of turkey, sausages wrapped in bacon, potatoes, brussel sprouts and carrots, with raspberries for dessert, we just sat around the front room and chilled out. Once in a while, we would dip into the boxes (note: boxes!) of chocolates that were lying around. We practically talked about everything and lost track of time. It was only when B realised that she needed to record the soap marathon on TV that we realised it was 8pm. Time really does fly when you’re having fun!

After watching 2 episodes of Himalaya by Michael Palin, P and me were off to bed.

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