It’s funny, really, just how easy it is to fall back into the old routine. It’s been over a year since I was in Britain for any length of time, but after a day or so, it was like I had never left. Sitting at the top of the table, laptop out (it’s a MacBook Air now instead of the old Pro, but no real difference), Bonnie and the family watching The Mentalist or Castle. It could have been any time since 2000 or so. Except I’m only here for a week this time, and just as I have got settled, it’s time to leave.

And I have stolen time from where I can, deciding to skip going into London so I can watch more Christmas films with Bonnie, poking holes into burning candles whilst wearing slippers that light up when I walk. This time, though, scaring the cats that have moved in during my absence. Scared cats that often flee at the sight of me - “who is this interloper?” they scowl at me before heading to the doors. My bedroom is now devoid of most of the things that made it mine; no books, no bookcases, no comics, no random bits of gadgets and paper on the floor. But still unmistakably mine, and still the place where I sleep the easiest.

I’m weird in that I’ve lived in one place for almost all of my life, yet I guess in the past year, I’ve lived on two different sides of the US in addition to my original home; making up for lost time, perhaps. Spending so long in one place gets you attached to it, I imagine, especially if you enjoyed the time you were there. The bike rides with friends now spread to the winds. The epic stories of action figures in the study that spanned weeks, months, and eventually years of continuity, and the use of blu-tack to fix the broken Transformers as they fell. The Christmases spent with my sister going through the Radio Times working out what to watch and eating as many mince pies as humanly possible. Spending Sunday afternoons at my grandmother’s, listening to Bruno Brookes countdown the Top 40 and learning music through my aunt’s copies of Smash Hits.

This will be my first Christmas without my family. Ever. It’s going to be hard. But I’m so happy that I got to watch Die Hard again with Bonnie this week.