I can’t believe I’m coming home for Christmas. If like me, you truly believe that home is where the heart (and family) is, then my home is in Logroño – Spain.
Growing up bilingual (on my mother’s side) we would spend every holiday in Logroño. Summers quickly whizzed by as my older sister and I spent endless hours playing Pokémon trainers with our cousins, visiting our favourite sweet shop, but most importantly, surrounded by our extended family. Most of my fondest childhood memories were built in this small Spanish city.
In fact, every time the holiday came to a close we would stay up crying in our mother’s and maternal grandmother’s arms, refusing to accept the inevitable next morning’s goodbye.
Growing up with 95% of your family in a different country (in an era before the internet) was never easy.
Although we continued to visit Logroño every summer, easter and half term; we stopped spending Christmases there when I was a tot.
From 1996, Christmases were spent at my paternal grandparents home in Kingston Upon Thames. Don’t get me wrong, these are also fond memories I’ll always cherish. These grandparents were Italian and my nonna cooked like no other. I honestly believe she’s the reason I’m such a ‘feeder’ today.
Coming back to 2018, it’s now been a few years since my paternal grandparents have passed. And even though my Spanish grandmother is no longer with us either, the rest of our family is still in Logroño – and next week we’ll be celebrating the festivities again with them.
This Christmas is going to be a whole new tradition, I can feel it. Waking up in our second home, with a different Christmas tree, but the same decorations. I only wish our cat could join us too.
Christmas in Spain is a complete different set up to the UK too. Christmas Eve is celebrated more so over the 25th December, and the food is supposedly another level of gastronomical perfection (I have a lot of aunties that love to cook).
How is everyone else spending their Christmas this year? Is home somewhere else too? Or do you kick back in your front room divulging your parent’s gifted box of Celebrations?
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