Christmas time has come, usually that means spending time with family, waiting for Santa to practice home-invasion, and seeing the looks on my family's faces when they open the gift that I handpicked for this special day. This year has been a bit different...
I had planned to head to Germany after the term ended here at Radley, I have family who lives in Cologne who had offered to show me the city and show me what a German Christmas was like. But by the time November arrived, the UK had put in place a quarantine rule for travelers to and from Germany. This made it impossible for me to go, so I had to cancel plans with my family in Germany. I would have to wait to see the famous Cologne Cathedral and to go watch my favourite football (soccer) team, Bayer Leverkusen. Hopefully the COVID situation will have improved by the time I am able to travel again.
After the disapointment of not being able to go to Germany, friends of mine from Scotland reached out and offered their house for me to stay at for the holidays. This had been the plan for the rest of the time. I had booked a train ticket to Heathrow, and then a flight from Heathrow to Glasgow, where my friends live. I had made plans to go and hike Loch Lomond, a large beautiful lake and area which may sound familiar if you listen to celtic music. I had also planned to try haggis and other scotish delicacies that my friends had planned to serve. The only restriction I had was that I could only be there for the five days around Christmas, 23-27 December. This was to comply with UK COVID regulations.
This plan was going well, all until the week before Christmas when the UK launched a new series of regulations, and a new tier to the tier system, Tier 4, complete lockdown. With this addition came news of a new strain of the COVID virus discovered in the UK. Scotland's First Minister announced that they didn't want anyone traveling from England unless it was for work reasons. In addition to that, the UK cut the time you could be with another household to only one day, Christmas day. Which made it so that there was almost no way that I could go anywhere or travel anywhere. I cancelled my flight and my train, and called my family to tell them the news. I was heartbroken, I had nowhere to go and nobody to spend Christmas with. I felt a bit like Kevin from Home Alone, except I wouldn't be fending off theives just boredom and loneliness.
In preparation for the Christmas season, I had purchased a small tree, lights, and ornaments to put up in my flat, so I had a Christmas tree. I was determined to make Christmas work for me, even if I couldn't see my friends and family, I was going to make sure I still enjoyed my Christmas. Shortly before Christmas, boxes came from Amazon and from the Royal Mail that my family had decided to send me with which I decided populate the base of the tree. Christmas was shaping up to be the best that it could be in the situation.
I then made a stop to a local Tesco to get supplies for my Christmas celebration. I bought the smallest Christmas ham that I could find, and some other food to hold me over through the few Christmas days I hadn't planned to spend at the flat.
Luckily I have joined a church in the area so I had a couple of options of things to keep me ocupied while I was going to be in the area. There was a caroling event planned, and a nativity parade also planned, which I voluteered for once I learned that I was going to be here for them. But as the day came for each, they were cancelled due to COVID precautions. Leaving me to remember Robert Burn's poem To a Mouse which talks about the best laid plans of mice and men. (Go give it a read, I recommend the English version over the Scottish)
Christmas Eve came and I found myself playing my guitar while videocalling my family. At the end of the call, I continued playing and I realised that music is such a beatiful thing and that I wasn't able to go caroling before, what's stopping me from going on my own around the college campus and singing to my colleagues and their families? Absolutely nothing was stopping me! I picked out We Wish You a Merry Christmas and set out to entertain. I strolled around the campus playing for anyone who would come to the door. I was out in the cold weather for three hours accompanied by my guitar and my good tidings that I was bringing. After going around, I got several texts thanking me for stopping by and that it was nice to see some Christmas cheer despite the current situation. I then went to the midnight service at the church.
Christmas morning when I woke to my alarm, I was not greeted by the frantic energy that comes with Christmas morning, there was nobody rushing around to wake me up to go look at presents, nothing baking in the oven, no stocking filled by Santa, no new presents under the tree brought in by the world's favourite cookie muncher (sorry Cookie Monster, you're a close second though). I woke up, got ready, put the ham in the oven, and went back to the church for another service. When church was finished, I went back to my flat, took the ham out, and after a bit I called home.
My call landed as everyone was starting to get up back in the states, which gave me a bit of that Christmas morning feeling that I was useed to. I was able to talk to my family as they opened presents and I opened the few that had been sent over. It was nice to just be there for the tradition that we had estabolished as a family, even if I was just a face on a screen. It wasn't the same, but it wasn't going to be the same no matter what happened.
Overall, Christmas wasn't at all what I had planned or what I would want it to be, but it's not about where you spend it, or who you spend it with. The season is about the king who spent his first Christmas in a barn surrounded by donkeys and camels. Comparatively, I'll take my flat and video-calling family to sleeping in a feeding trough.
Let's make next year's Christmas the best, please continue to practice healthy habits and wearing your mask, only together can we beat this virus.
Thank you as always for taking time to read this (rather long) blog post, I hope that you have a happy and healthy New Year, and I'll see you in 2021!
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