Preparing for Christmas and all things festive

As it is now December 1st, I will turn my thoughts towards Christmas. Today we will venture into the loft and retrieve this candle display which is always the first decoration to go up. Then little by little other festive bits and pieces  will make an appearance.  I have to do this in stages otherwise I get bogged down with it all, which rather defeats the purpose!

  Look what just dropped through my letter box this morning, right on cue because I am supposed to read Chapter 1 today! 

 From this company:

http://www.alibris.co.uk/booksearch?qwork=1087756 
 for the  price of £0.64! Our next book club read!  We are to read a chapter a day throughout Advent.  Each chapter is headed with the date.....sounds intriguing! (Am awaiting another book from the same company written by dh's great grandmother...but that's for another time!)

And this was my impulse buy today! I love snow globes,but most of them are quite tacky, this one however, ticks all the tasteful boxes!

 ....and finally, a reminder right at the start of Advent:

 1 Corinthians 13 (the Christmas version)

If I decorate my house perfectly with tinsel, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love, I’m just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas delicacies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love, I’m just another cook.

If I work at a soup kitchen, sing carols in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the Christmas tree with shimmering angels and glittery snowflakes, attend a myriad of Christmas parties and sing in the choir but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

 Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband. 

Love is kind, though harried and tired. 

Love doesn’t envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens. 

Love doesn’t yell at the kids toget out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the
way. 

Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 Love never fails. 

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure. 

(Anon)

Officially on holiday!

No more phones for a week, at least of the “Is there a bug going around, because I’ve had a sore throat for 2 hours” variety…. So now the holiday can truly begin, the free range turkey has been delivered  along with other delights, courtesy of our superb Farmers market locally:

 

http://www.sfmdirect.co.uk/

Here's an example; what would you prefer?

 I have fought with the freezer....and won...just........Now crammed full of meat, the door needing encouragement to close, but mission accomplished.....


Cranberry relish and bread sauce made:

A few decorations to set the scene:

Tomorrow we will pick the sprouts and the parsnips to see if we need we have enough or a final trip to the greengrocers is required, ice the cake....left it a bit late, I know! Then I have cakes to bake, the boys' favourites; mini chocolate Christmas puddings and date slices, plus Cranberry and ginger muffins which dh and I enjoy.

Plan the menus for 4 days, military operation!

At some point, I will wrestle with the sewing machine and make a Christmas stocking from felt, as I am one down. Two need some attention....and tlc...

But for tonight, it will be grabbing my knitting and settling down to watch Living with the Amish at 8pm. Dh will just be getting in the door having done his last "extended hours" shift at work for 2011 and will be officially on holiday too...and very hungry!

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/living-with-the-amish

Just a little window into my day, mainly for my mother's benefit as I'm told I don't blog frequently enough.... you never know 2012 may be different! 

"You're never fully dressed without a smile!" (Annie)

Walking to work this week, I saw a man walking towards me pushing his little daughter in her buggy. As I passed them, the toddler and I looked at each other, suddenly she smiled broadly and her eyes sparkled! It was one of those special moments, captured in a second, where lives connected, a celebration of being alive, of sharing a moment in time. What a refreshing start to a day!

How easy to just wrap your coat around you and stride forward, head down.....and miss out.

Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love — Mother Teresa

Flowers from the boys!

 The facebook status of one of our sons:

Would love to congratulate and thank his parents for the 30 years of marriage they celebrate today. 'Matthew 7:25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.'

I reached for my hankie....

The three boys sent us these, classy or what?!!

Lilies and Roses with a small pearl in each centre, for our 30th...

And the Lilies are perfumed....

 

After my previous post which included our song The dh has his suggestion of the song which takes us into the next chapter, posted on his facebook page:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqOMuR5Z530


and then the card...

So just to say thank you to everyone who has commented and helped us celebrate 30 years, I'll shut up now!

You're still the one...thirty years on!

 Thirty years on....


Our Song......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXtc-TH0Iv4


10 things I would tell my "newly married" self, 30 years on:

•  Your marriage will go from strength to strength, there are adventures to be had!

•  Marriage is not 50:50, sometimes it is 90:10 on either side due to outside influences past or present and the time will come when you no longer need to "unload your issues" at ridiculous hours of the evening

• "This too will pass"- 120 hour working weeks when you spend evenings and weekends alone with small children.

• Enjoy the fact that you both have very different personalities and learn from each other! 

• Don't talk to him when he is reading in bed....

• Always feed him before you tell him something that will cause irritation, when he arrives home.

• He has totally  different "love languages" from you, try and remember that (constant note to self)

• Map reading in cars will cause major stress if you are the navigator....but Sat Nav is on the horizon!

• He will introduce you to growing stuff, dogs and chickens and you will tell him about India....

• He will always love you, just the way you are and will encourage you to become who you were made to be!

Who knows what the future holds, the next 30 years?!

One thing is certain, our marriage has never just been about us.....

"Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."

Ecclesiastes 4:12

God has always been our third strand...without His transforming work in our lives, I wonder where we would be today?

THE DIGITAL STORY OF NATIVITY - ( or Christmas 2.0 )

Couldn't resist posting this!

A bit of Easter in pictures

Eggs!

Had a surprise package from my Mum in Greece, this week! Last year when we visited her we couldn't find any left in the shops. Thankfully, it's not all written in Greek, so here is the process, in pictures! I had never seen "sleeves" before and was quite dubious until I tried them...Now I shall be requesting them every Easter!


The eggs below have been hardboiled and drained on the kitchen paper.


Add the sleeves



Place back in COLD water and bring to the boil slowly

The sleeves gradually pucker up and adhere to the egg


The finished result!



First boil the eggs for 8 minutes


Cover eggs with hot or cold water and add 250ml vinegar

Remove after 6 minutes







Thanks Mum, I had a lot of fun!!!

Easter in photos

Just a little insight into the Easter w/e at our house in pictures!


Good Friday, this simple picture helped me to focus on the meaning.




I woke up to this strange skyline on Saturday morning...quite apt for the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday...





Ramzi's sister made this amazing pottery egg decorated with Hatty's picture! It opens up along the zig zags to reveal chocolate eggs which you then pass around to whoever comes to visit! She is a very talented woman!





Easter lunch with family and friends!

The food was a concoction of different foods from different nations....Indian spiced lamb with roasted sweet potatoes, parsnips, a mashed swede and carrots mixture, kale. The desserts, English trifle (decorated with Greek yogurt)and Simmel cake. We ended with Arabic coffee!






Napkins folded by Chris in the Bishop's mitre style!

Table decoration by Samar!





The eggs were made by a lovely Romanian lady in our church. She had picked the leaves and boiled the eggs in onion skins. The result, as you can see, is dramatic and very beautiful.





An Easter gift given to me fron Eden and Kai, two of the cutest kids at our Church!

Tis the Season....

I am sitting here wondering if I have turned into “Bah Humbug”. I have decided, this year, to have a good look at the way we “do Christmas” in our family, and instead of ignoring the inner voice that has plagued me over recent years, I have put all my traditions, motivations and thoughts on the table, so to speak and am addressing them full on with no excuses…they have to justify the reason for their continued existence. The reason for this, I am seeking to find ways where Christmas can be celebrated in a way that is honouring to God, where I don’t spend hours trawling shops for stuff, and find myself struggling to stop getting caught up in the materialistic frenzy that the season attracts. Don’t get me wrong, I want to buy presents for my family and friends but I just want to keep it at a meaningful level and a leisurely, enjoyable pace!

I have just returned from my first short Christmas shopping trip and to be honest I feel as if I would rather be sitting by a log fire on some remote Scottish Island watching the rhythm of the day and enjoy being with a few good friends, until all the hype and glitz has gone. What is happening to me? I crave simplicity, family, and the company of friends, conversation, and peace, meals around a table, laughter and acceptance. I don’t want stress, but just venturing out this morning made me aware that the pressure is on and very much out there.

My hope is that we have an authentic Christmas, celebrating the birth of Christ, that we look around and include those who find themselves away from family, but make this a lifestyle not just an act at Christmas. That we make time to enjoy being with one other, that we take time to listen and reflect.

There, I feel better already...