An inevitable part of emigrating is saying goodbye to friends and family. Sure, with Facebook, Skype and a bunch of other digital tools available, it’s much easier to keep in touch than it was even 10 years ago. But still, they can’t recreate getting together face to face with people.

So while I braced myself for seeing less of my nearest and dearest, I didn’t expect there to be an upside to that. When we see our friends and family from the UK now, because it’s less often, we have such a greater appreciation for the time together, and their company, that it seems to be much more ‘quality time’.

Don’t get me wrong – I wish they’d all followed me over here so we could have an uninterrupted flow of impromptu nights down the pub without a single flight in sight, but there’s something truly great about hosting people in my new-ish hometown that in some regards surpasses the casual night out together. We get to cook for them, show them our favourite parts of town, sit around on the sofa chatting nonsense for hours. It’s perfect.

Last weekend, Alex and Kate came to visit. A few weeks ago it was Tim and James. Before that Kelly and Geoffrey. My friend Katie from Zurich ‘popped by’ while she was in town. And my Mum’s coming in a couple of weeks for Christmas, before Chris and Sophy round off our year with three days over New Year’s Eve.

Even if we’d laid door-to-door limousines on, we could never have expected such a great run of visitors to our London flat, because that’s just not how life was there. We’re lucky to have people who come and visit (both from abroad and our new friends who live here), and I know that some of that is where we live – that Copenhagen is a city that people definitely want to visit us in (but it is us that you’ve come to see, right guys?!?)

The photos here will hopefully give you a taste of the fun we’ve been having, and don’t forget, the door’s always open…