Whilst recovering from my knee surgery, I had plenty of visits from both near and far. My sister visited in December, kickstarted the festive period with an invitation from Erretres for the two of us to join the Christmas party. I was excited to see my sister when she arrived, pumped to get out of the house that evening, and then overjoyed to see my colleagues all together for the first time in months.
After the high of the party came some bad news: I wouldn’t be allowed to fly home for Christmas. As the panic of the possibility of spending Christmas alone began to hit, Sara swooped in to save the day. Because of her work schedule, she would also be in Madrid, so we came up with a plan to spend an alternative Christmas Day together at my place.
Sara showed up on Christmas Eve and we watched a cheesy festive film together before bedtime. The big day then began with a little surprise, as Sara presented me with a gift that she’d smuggled in, which made me glad that I’d included an extra of chocolate in my last online shopping order. That way, I made sure I could offer her something to unwrap, too.
What proceded was a relaxed and rather wholesome day. We started off by decorating gingerbread biscuits, then cooked a lunch which infused our two cultures, with Spanish prawns for starters and our best attempt at a British Christmas meal as our main. This was all accompanied by the dulcet tones of a playlist we’d created including English Christmas carols and Spanish villancicos. We ended the day in the only possible way: by falling asleep whilst watching yet another terrible Christmas movie.
After such a lovely Christmas, I was then confronted with my next pickle: how to spend the New Year. I still wasn’t allowed to leave Madrid, but Pedro came through with a lovely proposal, involving welcoming in 2025 with his partner, his mum, and the customary twelve grapes. This made for a very enjoyable evening, including a double celebration as we also made time to watch the London fireworks an hour before the Spanish countdown. As Pedro helped me hobble home on my crutches, however, I learned that they like to start the new year in Spain with a bang — quite literally. The firecrackers that people were throwing around the street nearly had me falling over and breaking my other bloody knee!
I like to think that I made the best of a bad situation during this Christmas period, as with many other moments during my accident and recovery process. I couldn’t have been so optimistic alone, though, and so I’d like to once again express my love and gratefulness to Sara, Pedro, and all my friends and family who accompanied me on the road to recovery. I missed being home, but our Spanish Christmas was truly special.
