Heading home for Christmas

The best feeling in the world is waiting at an airport knowing I’m heading home. True, I am an aviation tragic so being around aircraft makes me happy, but knowing the destination is hovering just out of reach is what lifts my heart.

In three hours I’ll touch down in the velvety heat of North Queensland. The humidity will squeeze my lungs and raise a sheen on my arms and face. My fellow travelers will be discarding their layers of clothes and I’ll embrace the warmth. Places, faces, the integral traces of the tropics welcome me back. My shoulders will lower and I’ll truly relax. The anticipation of seeing GW and Zeus again keeps me sane through even the toughest week.

In two weeks we’re heading to the UK (but don’t tell anyone incase the weather gods or volcano goddesses find a way to disrupt our plans for a third time…). Right now there’s a spring in my husband’s step that isn’t always obvious at this time of year as the courts overflow with Christmas angst. His smile is a little wider, his laugh a little louder and his touch a little more tender.

It struck me that he’s no different to me. He’s going home. Maybe he says he’d never live in the UK again. Frequently he says the weather’s disgusting (in his inimitable Manchester accent) and yes he’s been known to complain it’s too cold there. But it was his home for thirty years and his family still live there. No wonder GW is excited. This Christmas he’ll have us all in the one place. (Except for Zeus who’ll be guarding the Christmas tree and amusing his house-sitter!)

So what does Christmas hold for you? Do you have several homes scattered across Australia or the globe? Is the joy in the journey or the destination?

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16 thoughts on “Heading home for Christmas

  1. Enjoy time with you Grandma and I hope the lure of having a wonderful day seeing you means she’s in the present.

    I’ll keep a look out for you in Sydney!

  2. *laugh* I am at the airport awaiting to board a flight to Port Macquarie to see my Grandma – she has dementia escalating… miss her so much and becoming harder and harder to find her inside that mind 🙁 and back this afternoon… Might see you wandering the halls of the airport?! Yes… Mustn’t wake darling Zeus… That would be very mean;)

    Have a good one xx

  3. Amanda, childhood friends know us in a way few others can. They saw the raw product before we chose our different paths. It’s a connection that never quite fades.

    Have to agree that the smells can be so evocative and if we could package the whole lot up in fairy dust it would be a much happier and relaxed world!!

    I’m sat in bed typing this knowing I should be packing for another trip to Sydney. I can’t quite muster the enthusiasm and Zeus the wonder dog is lying on my legs… I couldn’t possibly wake him so I’ll have to put off dragging the suitcase out for another half an hour 🙂

  4. Bugger… Hate when you press send before finished!!!

    Anyway – I think if you could capture the essence of ‘that’ feeling that people have when visiting a person or place that has made them feel safe and well and sprinkle it like fairy dust in the world – what a place it would be xxx

  5. What a post Helene – such a well of emotion fills me up contemplating ‘home.’ Even though I have only moved to the other side of the city (albeit North to South in Sydney is a little more than a hop, skip and jump) sometimes it feels as far away as another land when I am missing my parents and childhood friends who seem to have a something that us a little different from even my dearest adult friends…

    Even though I love where I live and the places and people I know here, it doesn’t quite give me the ‘agghh I’m home’ feeling… There’s a certain place on my journey from South to North that gives me the shoulder drop and smile… And I feel ‘home’

    I think that memories built during a time and place that shaped much of the fabric of who you are the most evocative… The smells and sounds for me are the first triggers…

  6. I still have a couple of last minute pressies to buy, Cathy, but I’m almost finished! Recovery day today after attending a beautiful wedding last night!

    Yay indeed, Rach 🙂

  7. And I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, Rachael. 2012 will be a huge year for you 🙂

    Before that, of course, I’ll have the pleasure of welcoming you to my blog this week to help celebrate you latest release!!

  8. Thanks Sandy:) Enjoy having your man home for Christmas – hope they gave him a few days either side as well!

    If you could put in a good word that would be great – not daring to talk too loudly about it though…

  9. I think home for GW is wherever you are, Helene. But visiting a place that holds memories and family is always something to treasure.

    My other half actually has Christmas Day off! So we’re entertaining friends and family 🙂 It’ll be great fun!

    Shall put in a word for you with the powers that be and arrange smooth flying weather and little staff. 🙂

  10. Wishing you a lovely Christmas in Manchester, Helene. My Dad’s family are in Irlam 😉 No doubt, it will be cold and possibly snowing. Take lots of photos to share. Christmas for me…is at home with my family.

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