A Very Merry (but slightly stressy) Covid Christmas

I have been so excited for Christmas this year- especially as I am now living away for uni. But things were a little different…

A typical Christmas at the Latham/Turner’s consists of our house being full to the brim with people. On the day there is usually anywhere between 9 and 11 of us (and the dog) at my house and has been this way for a very long time. But this year it was unusually quiet with just the 4 of us and of course the doggo.

But let's rewind a bit-

6 days before chrimbo and 48hours before I was meant to get on my first train at Dundee Station, Boris Johnson announced that pretty much the whole of the South of England was to be put into the new tier 4 which pretty much meant cancelling Christmas. As well as this, Nicola announced that there will be travel bans (going in and out of Scotland) and that households should only mix on Xmas day.

PANIC STATIONS A GO! I was like wtf am I going to do. On the government briefings they didn’t mention students at all so for a solid 24hours I didn't think I was allowed to go and if I was allowed to go I was worried that I may not be allowed to get back to uni in case the North of England went into tier 4 which would possibly meant trains would stop running as they did in London. But after lots of phone calls with mother goose and my step-dad I decided (less than 12 hours before I was meant to get on my first train) that I was “Driving home for Christmas”- well “training home for christmas” if you pardon the pun.

The game plan-

As trains were only running at 50% capacity I decided to book my train tickets a couple of weeks before I was wanting to go home. As none of us were 100% sure I would definitely be able to be at home for Xmas, I decided to book trains to Carlisle rather than Blackpool North as I would only lose about £20 rather than £50 if I missed my train.

Good old Mother T and my step-dad Phil drove all the way up to Carlisle to pick me up from the station. And all I can say is when I saw their faces when I was walking out of the station, it felt like a Love Actually moment- the bit at the airport with the crowds of people who are waiting to meet their loved ones. I couldn’t believe that I had actually made it!

Back to Christmas- food, fun and games

This year we decided to have a plant-based Christmas. All of my family are pretty much vegetarian and I am lactose intolerant so we thought we would give it a go. My mum ordered from the VeganKind supermarket https://www.thevegankindsupermarket.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiA57D_BRAZEiwAZcfCxV5gKSPk_zac9vxZJGX2zClhlOuLddpuT6A0fNIl-1a5apiIAU30FBoCvBMQAvD_BwE and we had the traditional dinner: “turkey”, “pigs in blankets”, veggies, potatoes and lots of gravy. There was that much food we had a second Christmas dinner on Boxing Day- SO GOOOODDDD! Mum also made a Christmas cake which was amazing and I also ploughed through a Rudolph chocolate Yule log. Mum bought this vegan ‘chocolate bomb’ from Morrisons- wasn’t a fan but it got eaten up by the others.

So to make Christmas as close to normal as we could, we arranged to Skype my grandparents where we had our Christmas Dinner ‘together’. It was very funny trying to get my nana to understand how to position the camera so we weren’t staring at the fireplace but we got there in the end- very amusing.

We also decided to regroup in the evening but with my Aunty and Uncle as well for a bit of virtual bingo- a classic and staple game for us at Christmas where my sister and I essentially got taught how to gamble from the age of about 10 through this game, so it's been a tradition ever since. My parents are good people I promise.

We also spent a good few hours on our ancient Wii playing Mario Kart- classic. I am proud to say I have not lost my touch- the others (with the odd exception of my sister) need to up their game.

No Presents?-

Due to it just being the four of us and with the rapid rising cases, we decided not to exchange presents this year. We could have easily ordered stuff online but it would be unfair for my grandparents (who don’t know how to online shop) having to go into the town centre at the busiest time of the year. But you know what, I still haven’t figured out what I would have asked for if I would have had something to open. This year was definitely about being as physically (or virtually) close as possible to each other and I think we achieved that pretty well!

My Dad and step-mum Lynne dropped off a few bits as my sister and I would have normally gone to their house on Christmas Day afternoon. But apart from that- no presents. Instead, we had all decided to put money together to go to Center Parks next year. Result!

Pics from the day-