Christmas

"Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." -Elbert Einstein.

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Andy and my uncle's Land Rover

Christmas is done for another year. Andy and I are back in Crawley, after spending time with my English family over Christmas. Almost every year my mum's family generally travel over to my aunt's place in the countryside near Colchester over Christmas. Its a time of fun and family. We don't have our Christmas dinner on December 25th, rather we have our big Christmas dinner on the 24th of December. Its something that my maturnal grandmother started in Hong Kong so that she could spend time with her visitors rather than slaving away in the kitchen, to make the food. If you're unfamiliar with how British Christmas dinners go, they're usually made up of food that takesa while to prepare. My aunt and my great aunt usually spend days preparing all the food and then once its all done, they have Christmas Day to relax, for the most part. They'll do the breakfast (usually a fry up) and we'll often go for a walk (this year Andy and I didn't go on the walk with the family) and then have presents. I ended up crashing hard and slipped out of the living room so I could lie down for a few hours (my body clock is a tad off from all the night shifts that I've been doing over the last few months).

Seeing the hunt off

Then on boxing day we went and saw the hunt off. This is a rather contraversial topic, I know. Andy and I went because its part of the family tradition to do, but I should point out, we weren't forced to go (we could have stayed behind if we'd preferred). The family will go and see them off every year on December 26th. I may not agree with hunting, with hounds and horses, or birds of prey, either, but sometimes we need to choose between spending time with those we love (family) or not joining in with something that might be considered contraversial, even slightly. The reason I went was because of the tradition that's involved, and my deep rooted love for horses. I used to ride every week for years, in Uganda, Kenya and the Netherlands, and I'd still be doing it, if it weren't so expensive over here in England. Horses are such beautiful animals. They were all turned out so beautifully and their ridders were stunning in their red jackets. There were even three ladies ridding sidesaddle, which is incredible, as normally there's only one lady riding side saddle. Once we waved the hunt off, we went down to the local pub for a pint or two to warm up, before heading back to my aunt and uncle's home.

There were over 70 horses and their riders taking part in this year's hunt.

Andy and I travelled home today. We're going to see Andy's paternal grandparents tomorrow, and I'm also looking forwards to seeing them as there's so many charateristics that Andy and his siblings have inheritated from his grandparents (on both sides) and so seeing them allows me to get to know my new, extended family just that much better. Andy and I may have been married for a little over a year but I'm still getting to know his grandparents better. Those of you who know my family probably know that all my grandparents have passed away, and the only person who I'll call 'nana' is my mum's aunt. She and her husband (who has now passed away), said that my siblings and I could call them "Nana & Granddad". So they've been "Nana & Granddad" since I was five. That title will never change, even though Granddad John may have gone to a better place, he'll always be my Granddad John. In that regard, I consider myself extremely lucky, because I had three sets of grandparents, instead of two (my paternal grandfather and my maternal grandmother both passed away before I was born so I never got to know them).