Flying Home For Christmas

Haworth – West Yorkshire – England

Most years, since my two children were born, we turned our backs on Greek Christmas and headed “Home” to Leeds.

My daughter, Nais, pleaded with me to write a post about these happy times, little did she know how her request, would evoke such an unexpected rush of nostalgia.

Planning for this exciting yearly occurrence began in late November, with the purchasing of plane tickets and checking that passports were all in order.

Flying home for Christmas

Preparing for Depature!

Suitcases were pulled from their hiding place, I had the most practical set, three, quite large ones, that nestled one inside the other, like Russian dolls.

Only two were used on the trip out, the smallest, and the medium, which was then placed inside the empty large one, this was to be filled with their Christmas stash on the return journey.

I can’t ever remember not paying excess baggage on the flight back to Greece.

Excess baggage – Always excess baggage!

MGG (My Greek God) took us to Athens airport, it was not often he accompanied us, business would not permit it, on a few occasions, MGG did join us at a later date.

As their were no direct flights from Athens to Leeds, this meant taking two planes, either Athens-Heathrow- Leeds, or Athens- Amsterdam- Leeds, we usually chose the latter.

We’re Home

On arrival, Grandpa would be waiting for us, and after the asphyxiating hugs and kisses, and the

“Oh how you’ve grown”

First stop was the fish and chip shop, I love fish and chips!

Harry Ramsdens Fish & Chips – White Cross, Guiseley, Yorkshire.

We devoured rather a lot of fish and chips over Christmas; I had to have my fill, to keep me going until the next Christmas.

My children became quite partial to them; especially the “Jumbo” sausages in batter, but mushy peas were a no no!

I do hope this is not what immediately comes to mind when they think about England.

I would go as far to say; they are the only thing I miss, here in Greece.

Calverley Fish & Chips – Our local “Chippy” – I spent much time and money in there! Worth every minute, and every penny.

I am invariably overcome with emotion, when descending over the snowy fields and dry stone walls, which surround Leeds and Bradford Airport, whose bright lights were winking in the distance.

There are lots of sheep in Yorkshire -Farmers have been known to wrap them in blue plastic, not only to keep them warm, but to make finding them in a snow drift easier!

Just another ordinary day in Yorkshire

I do have a chuckle to myself, on hearing British people comment on how quaint it is, to see sheep walking along the roads of Greece.

They have obviously never been to Yorkshire!

I’m home; this is Yorkshire.

“You can take the lass out of Yorkshire, but you can never take Yorkshire out of the lass”

Leeds – Home Sweet Home

As a rule, we stayed with my sister, as she has two children, only slightly younger than mine, Sophie and Matthew, luckily they all got on like a house on fire, as you can imagine, it was pretty hectic.

Yiannis and Nais were now in “English mode”, I loved to hear Sophie, who took them under her wing, explain English words, and excitedly announce to them, what was on our Christmas agenda.

The first day was given over to Christmas shopping, the children’s presents that is, Ian, my brother-in-law, would take all four children out for the day, allowing my sister Gillian and I to get this job done, and out of the way.

County Arcade Leeds

The Victoria Quarter – Leeds – My favourite part of Leeds City Center, amazing atmosphere, amazing stone facades, beautiful architecture and a plethora of arcades.

Leeds City Markets: Stand pie (Yorkshire men and women will know what a stand pie is.) and a large joint of pork for Boxing Day, bought here.

Ian’s favourite place to take the children, seemed to be some small farm, open to the public, which permitted children to pet the animals, afterwards, he would feed them; burgers or fish and chips was the usual, wasn’t he good?

We visited Haworth, no more than a few miles away from our village of Calverley, Bronte country, no Christmas was complete without this day out, and we visited every year.

The Apothecary Tea Rooms. Haworth.

Haworth’s a delightful little village, tucked away in a valley, flanked by the daunting Yorkshire Moors.

No wonder the famous Bronte sisters churned out such amazing books, they were surrounded with inspiration.

Yorkshire Moors – Bronte country
Can’t you just picture a brooding Heathcliff skulking around up here?

Here, in Haworth, is the Worth Valley railway station, made famous in the film “The railway Children” starring Jenny Agutter.

Haworth at Christmas.

Christmas Outings

To give my sister a rest, I would take Yiannis and Nais into Leeds city center.

This trip had to be taken by bus, and we just had had to sit upstairs, the excitement!

We don’t have double-decker buses in Greece!

Leeds bus – Yiannis And Nais were in their element on the top deck of a bus.
They’d never seen anything like it!

On alighting from the bus, first stop was John Lewis’s department store, after inspecting the amazing window display, best bar none in Leeds; we made our way to the third floor, toys, a veritable children’s paradise.

I don’t know how many hours we must have spent there over the years.

Third floor – Lewis’s toy department

Of course, we had to visit Santa in his grotto; my heart would sink when I spied the length of the queue.

Yiannis met Santa, and so did Nais – Remember this Yiannis?
I think we may still have it.

Then it was off to the top floor of Lewis’s for lunch, it was Christmas, self-service was a novelty for Yiannis and Nais, they were allowed to choose what they wanted.

I must say, sometimes there were some rather strange food combinations on their trays!

We spent the rest of the day combing the city shops and returned home, weighed down with shopping bags, again on the top of a double-decker bus, tired, cold and glad to be home, a stiff drink for me and fun and games upstairs for Yiannis and Nais, overjoyed to be back with their cousins.

One more traditional Christmas expedition was to Roundhay Park, taking in Canal Gardens and Tropical World.

Roundhay Park Leeds – John Atkinson Grimshaw

Nais, you loved Meerkats and saw your first one here at Tropical World, before Aleksandr Orlov, was ever made famous through the comparethemarket.com adverts on television!

Meerkat – Roundhay Park Leeds – Tropical World

Then there was Harrogate, why did we seem to choose the coldest day to visit there, or is it perpetually bitterly cold in Harrogate?

Never mind, we warmed ourselves with the mandatory scrumptious tea at Betty’s Tea Rooms.

Betty’s famous Tea Rooms, Harrogate.

Christmas lights on The Stray, Harrogate – Every year the same, never boring, a joy to see.

We went the rounds of friends and relations, we took time to see the many wonders of Yorkshire, and we consumed enough food to feed an army, all this on the run up to the highlight of our trip, Christmas Eve.

York – The Minister in the background

York in winter – You would truly be hard put, to find a more magical place.

Christmas Eve

The atmosphere throughout Christmas Eve was electric, the children hyper.

Good old Ian would take the children out somewhere or other and Gillian and I would knuckle down to Christmas Day preparations, unfailingly not going to plan, due to much Christmas spirit.

Bathed and decked out in Christmas pyjamas, the four children took their places on the sofa, Gillian in the middle, the book “The night before Christmas” open on her lap.

The Night Before Christmas –
A yard stick of how much Christmas spirit had been consumed by Gillian!

If Gillian managed to pronounce all the names of Santa’s eight reindeer correctly, we knew she’d taken it easy with the Christmas booze!

With pillow cases clutched tightly in their little hands, they climbed the stairs to bed, sleep did not come easily, and numerous times they needed to be threatened with;

“Santa won’t bring your presents until you’re asleep”

At last, all through the house, nothing was stirring, not even a mouse.

Waiting for Santa

Trying to be as silent as possible, gaily wrapped presents were stuffed into pillow cases, at the foot of beds, to be discovered later, to screeches of delight;

“He’s been, he’s been”

This was invariably at the godforsaken hour of five or six in the morning.

Christmas Day passed in a blur, of booze, wrapping paper, endless Christmas goodies, people coming, people going, the occasional harsh word, and the ubiquitous Christmas snore.