I have been thinking about this a lot, and worrying a lot, and I think it needs saying. When it comes to the lifting of lockdown and the new tier systems, please, don’t do more than you are comfortable with.

By all means, do whatever your tier system allows if you are up for that, but please don’t feel pushed into doing something that feels like too much of a risk to you.

Nathan and I have agreed that we aren’t seeing anybody over Christmas. For the foreseeable future, nobody will be coming in our house, and we won’t be going anywhere else either (work emergencies being the only exception). All Christmas presents will be posted so that we don’t need to see people and end up in a position where hugs are unavoidable. We are having a quiet Christmas to ourselves because for us, it feels too soon to do anything else.

For many, the lifting of lockdown rules this week and the upcoming ‘five days of Christmas’ will be just what they need, and that’s wonderful. I am pleased that the government has given us this flexibility and I know that loads of people will make the most of that, which is great.

But if you, like me, just aren’t ready to have people over, to hug anybody outside your household, and to get within 2 meters of others then I just want to remind you; that’s okay too.