• You don’t have to spend the days before Christmas frantically tidying and cleaning the house for the visitors arriving on Christmas Day. No one is visiting on Christmas Day.
• Fewer people in the house mean fewer argument about what to watch on TV. Or, indeed, fewer arguments full stop.
• When you video chat friends and relatives you can instigate a network failure by “accidentally” switching off the router if your get bored with the conversations.
• With fewer (or no) parties, there will be a glut of party food in the shops. Get ready for some hefty price reductions.

In the Barefoot household not a lot has had to be changed. We decided several weeks ago not to visit parents – and dropped off gifts when we repatriated Youngest Child at the beginning of December. We are in a Tier-2 area (for now) and so are still able to go out to restaurants and coffee shops. The nearest Tier-4 area is Portsmouth, and we have no desire to go there (not because it is Tier-4, but because it is Portsmouth).

The only minor change we have made is our visit to Eldest Child, who is staying at university with her bf. We had planned this trip for the 5-day “Christmas window”, so we could have a meal with them. Now we will still visit, but get a takeaway and meet and eat in the park. Other than that, we will have a home-based Christmas, and maybe meet a couple of local friends for outdoor walks.

And we can still run! We have created a number of circular routes that we’ve given names to: “big square” (because it’s 5 km and roughly square); “Asda loop” (because it goes past Asda”; “fast 5 km” (because I once ran it in 23:10 - I still have no idea how); and “river and pylons” (because it runs up the river, and then down a path along a pylon line). On one run I fell flat on my face after running across wet parkland on road shoes – I think I managed three paces before face-planking. My running kit was so muddy I got into the shower wearing it, to rinse off!

Last weekend Mrs B and I went out for a run together (Together” means that I add extra loops or retrace my route, so I don’t get too far ahead). I didn’t catch up with Mrs B where I thought I would, and after another 1.5 km still hadn’t seen her. I thought she may have slipped and be injured so turned round to run back to the start. Silly me; it was just my calculation that was wrong. She finished the run at about the time I turned round – so I ended up running 12 km to her 6! She’d given up waiting for me and gone home by the time I got to the finish point.