Chris Rea - Driving home for christmas

We all enjoy a bit of nostalgia at this time of year, so here is Chris Rea again supplying it by the bucket-load.

This always reminds me of my own family's annual trek from Sussex up to the Shropshire/Wales border, and to the hilltop cottage where we used to spend a week or so each Christmas. The cottage looked out over the rolling Welsh hills, and when covered in snow it was magical. 

It was usually chaotic. Having been left empty since the previous Christmas, often bits of the cottage would be missing (it was very windy up there), or the heating wouldn't work, or the taps would be frozen. There was always something, but we coped and loved every hectic minute. There was no proper road to the cottage, and we would often have to trudge through very deep snow.

The cottage was on the route of Offa's Dyke, and our walks through the woods (often with a local farm's Border Collie in tow) were just wonderful.

I have such fabulous memories of Christmases with my parents, as well as with a few uncles and aunts, none of whom are sadly now with us. I would like to say a huge 'thank you' to all of them (in absentia) for making those Christmases so wonderful. They were what true memories are made of, and this song brings it all back.