Fourth Sunday of Advent and the readings are about waiting for the arrival of the Baby. Mary was only a few weeks into her pregnancy when she went off to her cousin Elizabeth who was only a few weeks away from giving birth herself. But even at that stage the two babies recognised each other and knew their relationship ( Read more... )

The weekend of Fourth Sunday in Advent is our traditional time for decorating. I know festoons are out of fashion but we like them. They remind us of making paper chains when we were young ( Read more... )

My grandchildren spend alternate Christmases with their two sets of grandparents. This year they are with the other ones, so I get to decorate the tree with glass baubles going back to when I was born ( Read more... )

Every year we have a Christmas gathering at our house, because we have the room to fit more people in. (This year only 5 of us, but some years it can be a dozen) But one year we all squashed into Middle Child's house and decided it really is too much of a squash. The food was just as good there as here.


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When we were in France some years ago we saw this in the church. It's one end of what was obviously a major project with the children. They had taken over an entire side chapel and worked around the walls to model the entire gospel story. This was the Nativity, and as you went along there were miracles and other events until at the other end you ( Read more... )

We've gradually been improving our pair of churches over the last few years. Mostly it's been improving the meeting rooms to provide better access for people with mobility issues and providing a community pantry, but we've also been redecorating. The old statue of the Madonna and Child has been repaired and repainted and looks rather good now. She' ( Read more... )

I've marzipaned the cake today. It'll get the icing at the end of the week and then will look similar to this one from a few years ago. I'll be using bought in sugar figures, but this year's are reindeer and snowmen instead of penguins and polar bears.


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It's Gaudete (Rejoicing) Sunday, the week where we light the pink candle. These are my Advent candles for this year. My four year old grandson solemnly informed me today that they are the wrong colour, they shouldn't be red but purple.


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There seem to be fewer people putting lots of decorations outside their houses this year. Talking to someone else they had noticed the same and thought it was because of the pre-Christmas storms we had last year and this had caused too much damage to what they had outside ( Read more... )

The council decided to cancel its official light switch on this year. There was going to be entertainment, food stalls and a market as well as the lights going on for this Christmas. But the day originally chosen coincided with the arrival of Storm Bert and they decided it was too risky to go ahead with it. So it was postponed for a fortnight, ( Read more... )